Erebus Review

Halloween is just around the corner...my favorite time of year!!!  So went to Erebus with family a few weeks ago and wanted to post my review.  Erebus is a four story haunted house in Pontiac.  It took roughly 45 minutes to go through the whole thing, but was a blast. So onto the review...

Been wanting to go to Erebus for many years now, and this year I was finally able to get a group together and go.  It costs $28 a person to enter, but I believe it was well worth the price. I went with my mom, uncle and cousins for a total of 7 of us in our group.  We were thrilled to start our adventure, but when we got there, they told us the MAXIMUM number of people per group that can enter at once is 6. So we split up into four and three.  I went with my mom, and cousin Angela and her friend, Jesse. The other group consisted of my uncle and cousins, Aaron and Alicia.

It all started before we even entered the facility. A young girl came from outside and was crawling around on the floor trying to scare the people in line (it was very similar to the scene in The Ring, with the girl crawling out of the tv, at least that is what it reminded me of).  It didn't bother me, I was more concerned that people were going to step on her haha. Needless to say though, I was very nervous about entering based on stories I have heard in the past.  My biggest fear was being split from the group. I was surprised that for a Friday night, it was not very crowded and the wait time was very short.  We were scheduled to go in at 8:30, according to our tickets, but got in about 8:15. Before entering though, they do warn everyone that you should not go in if you have any sort of heart problems or are pregnant. They also have a "wimp out" board, which includes the number of people that have wimped out and could not finish going through the house. To add to that, they also have the number of people that have wet themselves or puked on themselves.  I couldn't believe how high the numbers were.

As we entered, they direct you towards one of the many doors.  When your group enters, they close it behind you,(so now you are in a small space, like an elevator with doors on both sides--so I can see why they only want 6 per group....) and the lights flicker over and over as a voice over the intercom comes on. When the door on the other end opens, we immediately scream at the first guy who opens the door lol, such idiots haha.  There is only one pathway to go, so you can't get lost, just follow the trail. We sent Jesse up front, followed by Angela, then me and my mom in back.

The first area when you walk in, the man tells you to stand up against the wall as we may be infected with a virus.  He shows us what happens when you get the virus (a man inside a cage explodes). Angela responds with, "oh cool" and I say, "that's awesome" lol.  So then we proceed on, as a woman is yelling at us to hurry up because we have to escape before we get infected. We took our sweet old time and went very slow lol.

For the rest of the haunted house, we proceeded to go up and down stairs and ramps many times, so if you are handicapped, I don't think you would be able to go in unfortunately.  There is one area where you have to walk across a ledge, or so it seems.  Angela and I tested it out to make sure there was an actual platform and we weren't gonna die lol. There is, but you can't see it, and of course, the wall will start caving in on you trying to push you off that ledge.  It was a brilliant special effect. As we continued through, there were walls that would open and close and you had to make your way through them.  Not wanting to be split up, we hung onto each other's shirts, and my mom got stuck in the wall lol.  The wall closed on her, so we waited for it to be open to release her because she didn't want us leaving her behind.  The walls felt like they were made of Styrofoam, so all was good.

Angela's favorite part was the swamp that we had to walk through.  It was just like walking on tires or something, but it definitely made it feel like a swamp because of the special effects they use. And of course, there were dead things coming out of the swamp.

After the swamp, we proceeded to get buried alive. We had to wait for it though (so they could clear the group that was ahead of us), so they put us against the wall. The man asked us who wanted to die first.  Of course, Angela raised her hand lol. Another group came behind us and the man directed them farther down the hall.  I replied with, "why do they get to go down there, I want to go" and the man replied back with, "because you get to die here".  I just said okay lol.  While we were waiting, someone comes around the corner and low and behold, it's Aaron!! He was alone.  Confused, I asked him where the others were, and he said they got split up!  I was so happy I was not in his group now haha, so he got to get buried with us since he was alone.  When our wait was over, we entered a very small room and were told to hold onto the bars. Then 10,000 balls come falling on top of your head, ultimately burying you.  It only lasts for a couple seconds though, but it was fun. Aaron ended up finishing the haunted house with our group.

Other things that went on: you get attacked by a large clapping monkey, eaten by a shark, and many times things will grab at you when you can't see them, so you don't expect it.

There was one section of the haunted house where they take your picture.  As a guy tries to scare you, 50 cameras in all different angles snap your photo at once.  You can see this photo when you exit the haunted house.  As much as I would have loved to have the photo, I didn't want to spend the $20 it costs to get it.

A few recommendations...I would not recommend this haunted house for small children. If you suffer from things like panic attacks or are claustrophobic, I wouldn't recommend it. You do have many times when you are in small spaces, walls closing in on you, many people jumping out at you (expected and unexpected), and one area where you have to kneel down to get through..not good if you have back or knee issues, but it isn't a long section, so you should be okay.  If you are one that freaks out a lot, many of the people in the haunted house will constantly harass you as they think its fun.  So the best position to be in is in the middle.  Jesse was our leader and NOTHING scared him. He didn't even flinch and was wondering why we were all screaming.  Typical guy...Being in the back can be horrifying. The Zombies/monsters would constantly follow you and get in your face, as you are an easy target.

Overall I had a great time. The makeup many of the "actors" are using is phenomenal, the special effects were brilliant.  Good times, I would give Erebus a 10 out of 10.

Should College's have a smoking wide campus ban?

I am all for this and love the idea, but that’s probably because I’m not a smoker.  Recently, the college I attend, Oakland University (OU), passed a campus wide smoking ban starting in Fall 2013.  There were talks about doing this for years, and finally they put it through. Is that too much?  Is it taking away the rights of those that do smoke?

It was passed because Oakland is all about promoting a positive and healthy environment for its students. I was reading up on the Oakland Posts’ Facebook page (our school newspaper) and was disgusted by the horrible comments people were leaving about the ban.  Many smokers were saying that “if they are going to ban smoking to promote a healthier environment, then they should ban all the fatty foods too, because banning smoking was taking away our rights.  Students pay a lot of money to go to college and now they don’t have the right to have a cigarette if needed?”   First of all, eating unhealthy foods is your choice. Oakland offers many alternatives so you don’t have to eat unhealthy.  If YOU eat unhealthy fried foods, it DOES NOT affect MY health.  However, smoking DOES affect MY health.  That is where we separate the two.  Second hand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing roughly 53,000 nonsmokers per year.   With that said, smoking is a major concern not just to your health, but to everyone around you too that choose not to smoke.

So why couldn’t college’s like Oakland University limit to where smokers could smoke rather than banning it from the whole campus?  Well, they tried.  They made it a rule that smokers MUST smoke AT LEAST 50 feet from designated buildings.  However, it was NEVER followed.  I have attended OU for a few years and have yet to see one smoker follow that rule.  Everyone stands outside the doors, so other students have to walk through the smoke to get inside.  And when it’s windy….forget about it, the smoke always seems to blow in the direction we are walking, which makes it a problem when we are walking behind a smoker or a group of smokers.  However, this was also partly on OU’s fault. They never enforced the rule, so smokers were able to get away with it.

For all the smokers that still want to smoke on campus and call us non smokers whiners: stop telling me to hold my breath and deal with it while I walk through your cloud of smoke. How about you just not light it up? Your lack of smoking 50 feet from the building, leaving cigarette butts everywhere and just generally not following the rules that the campus provided…..you brought this upon yourselves and to solve it, Oakland chose to put a ban on smoking.  Some students have stated that they are allergic to smoke as well, so I’m sure they are happy with this decision OU has made.

On another side note to smoking….smoking outside to the front doors almost everywhere I go is starting to get on my nerves.   Many places, not just OU, have a certain distance they want you to be from their building to smoke. So it’s not just OU where this rule was not followed.  The common saying I hear (for smoking near the doors) is that it’s too cold out etc.  Boo freaking hoo!  Deal with it!  If you don’t like the cold, then don’t smoke, it’s really as simple as that. I guess that’s a consequence of smoking, you have to deal with the weather changes, gee whiz.

Now, my only concern is this: I wonder how Oakland University is going to enforce it, since they never enforced the 50 feet rule. I’m hoping they have more police around campus, or that students will report if they see another student smoking. I can only imagine that many students will still bring their packs to school and smoke where they want to.   So let’s do a better job this time OU and enforce this!

And just for the record, I have nothing against smokers themselves; I just don’t agree with your choice to smoke.  It’s not my life though, so smoke if you want to (off campus).

Well, game one sucks....but we'll get 'em back!  Go TIGERS!!! :)

WhenAngelsSing_Commercial.avi

Recently filmed a short commercial for Shelby Patricks new thriller novel, When Angels Sing. Very good read and makes wonderful gifts :)

Randomness....

It's about time I make another blog post :) Even though I feel like I'm talking to myself, cuz not sure anyone reads it....lol

School is going great, but can be very stressful with the amount of work. I came across a wonderful opportunity to apply for an internship in Florida at Walt Disney World, or California at Disneyland. It sounded so cool, I jumped at the chance. Since I have never been to either one, I couldn't pass up the chance to get an internship there. It's a long internship, about a year. But you can take classes over there and credit will be given, so it sounded like a cool opportunity not to pass up. I watched the presentation and was gonna call the following week for an interview, but turns out they said they were no longer recruiting for the Spring. I was disappointed because they just came into my school a week ago, and talked about it. Then a week later, they no longer are recruiting. So I'll probably not get the chance to go there, because the next time they are recruiting is for the fall and chances are, I will almost be done with school by then.

But anyways the holidays are coming up. My favorite time of year...love when the stores stay open later :) Pumpkin, eggnog, gingerbread, who could ask for more? :) Not looking forward to the freezing weather though. So.....what's everyone doing for the holidays?

Anyone joining in on the Jimmy Kimmel National Unfriend Day on Wednesday?? :)

Can't get any worse....

Nope...it really can't get worse. My kitty, Mercury, went to the vet last week and everything seemed okay at first. I got meds for her infection and everything seemed to pick up. She went from bad, to better and then to worse. I don't get it....but she didn't make it and died last Sunday :(. Poor thing was only 8 years old. Her halloween costume won't get used this year...as Turbo is twice the size of the costume. Mercury always would wear a size small and Turbo had to wear a dog costume to fit anything, such a big teddy bear.

Anyways, shortly after Mercury died, my car decided to give me trouble again, twice this week. My uncle is gonna look at it this weekend, so hopefully I can save some money :)

Ok, time to rant. So....at my school, parking tickets are on the rise. Probably roughly like 300 were issued already and it's only been a couple weeks since classes have resumed. I don't get it, they are getting parking tickets because they are making their own parking spots on the grass. Yes, I get it, the school has had a huge increase in students enrolled this year, so they had to build another parking lot to make room for all the incoming freshman. The new parking lot is a good distance from the buildings, so walking takes time. The students excuse for parking on the grass? There is no parking anywhere. Wrong! I park in the new parking lot everyday, and walk to the buildings. It's no problem and everyday there is tons of parking in the new lot. So why aren't students parking there? Because they're lazy. Yep, thats right. If they are not physically handicap and very well have two legs, they can walk to their building, but yet they refuse to and rather risk getting a ticket (which I hear aren't cheap either). I don't get it. I certaintly don't have the patience to be circling around the parking lot 100 times just hoping someone will pull out of their space just so I can get a place near the building I am going to. It's crazy, but I guess if you rather pay a ticket, than get some exercise, then park wherever you want :)

Problem with my kitty...

Hey guys,

So the story goes like this....I have two cats, Turbo and Mercury. Mercury was healthy as could be until about a few weeks ago. She normally comes up and says hello and jumps all over your lap. A few weeks ago, it stopped :(. She started to walk odd and couldn't walk straight. I immediately called the vet and took her in. He said it could be one of two things--heart or ears. Since he couldn't pinpoint it exactly, he gave me meds for both to cover both of them. A week went by and she seemed to be improving. Started eating more and her walking was a little better. The only problem she really had was jumping. She could not jump and land on her feet when coming back down.

So, I thought there was nothing to worry about, the meds seemed to be working. But then, it gets worse. She started to scratch quite a bit. She was scratching around her collar, so I took it off, thinking it was irritating her. She scratched at her ears quite a bit too. I went off to school, came back home and she had a little cut on her back, just behind her neck. My first reaction was that Turbo had jumped on her and scratched her. So I shrugged it off, and separated them when I went to school the next day. Came home the next day and saw that she was bleeding around her ear. Figured it was from scratching too much or too hard. So I cleaned her ears out pretty good that night. Woke up the next morning and she was bleeding around her neck only on the left side and still had some dry blood from her ears. It looked like they were from scratching, but I'm not really sure.

Obviously, there is something wrong here and no one can give me an exact answer. It gets really frustrating when you take her in, and they can't tell you what is wrong. They give you meds, hoping they work, and if they don't, they give you more, only to have you wasting your money on all these different medications, only to have none of them work. I wish I had tons of money, so I could be taking her to the vet every week, but I don't :(

It can't be dry skin or anything, because she has lived in the same place for more than a year and just a few weeks ago it started. I miss the little kitty that would jump all over me when I get home.......

Turbo is lucky. He is as healthy as can be and has never had any health problems. Every morning he'll follow you around the entire place until you put food in his dish :) I tried running from him this morning and he just walked faster lol.

If Mercury doesn't get better in the next couple days, I'm gonna have to take her to the vet, even if it means cutting off my arm to pay for it....life's not easy :(