Mask, my heart for a mask

Y’all, I have never been so over the flu season as much as I am now. All my fun seems to be canceled. My dear friend Miranda and I were going to see And That’s Why We Drink (podcast- super amazing- I love them, listen to them… tell your friends) The half marathon I’ve been training for was rescheduled until August. Not going to lie, as much as I saw it coming…. It hurt my heart. But as Tessa said, its best to look at this now as stamina training and I’ll kill it in the fall. Now I just need to find the motivation I have lost. Everyone seems to be in a quarantine… or getting ready for it… PLEASE LEAVE SOME TP FOR THE REST OF US- for fucks sake. Its a GD flu- I get it, its bad and its not good – don’t @ me. Yeah, there might be a quarantine BUT not everyone is able to buy 12 cases of ass wipe at a time… just saying- rant over :) Let's start a new fashion trend!!!

Most people are finding themselves stuck in a house with people you don’t spend all that much time with IE family. If you’re lucky, you get to kick it like me… with my 2 cats, my laptop and Netflix. I was thinking about all the times in history that people have been quarantined. Throughout history plagues have tormented the weak immune systemed humans. Reeking havoc through world on every continent, plagues can rewrite basic societal instincts. Everyone knows about the ‘Black Death”. The Black Death wiped out entire towns, spending almost a half decade tearing across Europe. Thanks to good hygiene and vaccines, most plagues are addressed fairly quickly and most never return or the return has a lessened impact. Basically, wash your hands, get the shots and don’t let rats bite you… and you should live pretty long. Not a bad plan if I might say so myself… don’t get me wrong, sometimes I don’t comb my hair for a week, but I at least shower almost every day.

In the past, one way to handle a plague was to quarantining all infected hosts to an isolated area. Often, these hosts are sent to islands. It could be worse, spending time being sick on an island. Right, SOOOO if I know I’m dying, I’m going to croak by the ocean? I could roll with that.

One of these islands is the Poveglia island, a small island a half mile off the coast of Venice. From 1793-1814, this island was used as a plague quarantine station. All visitors to Venice were required to spend 40 days on the island. Venice had some of the strictest sanitary laws. These short stays were far from the islands later years. These visitors were given their own rooms and sometimes their own apartments. The tiny island is rumored have housed over 160,000 souls on their final days. So many so that its said the soil is at least 50% human remains. Seems a bit high? I mean… fuck. Fuck… shudders. As of today, the island has not been fully investigated, but recently mass graves were found on nearby plague islands.

In the 1920’s a mental hospital took up residence on the island…. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before…. Legend says that one of the doctors tortured and killed many of the residents. Name that movie! The doctor died later by falling to his death from the bell tower. Some saying he was thrown from the tower, other that some of the patients bricked him in the wall. Locals claim that, if one were to listen carefully, you can hear him ring the tower bell.

Currently Poveglia island remains off limits to visitors. I’m sure to attempt to preserve the area, again, they haven’t investigated it… so that could be it… I’m sure that’s it. However, in 2016, 5 people from Colorado paid a water taxi to drop them off on the island. Once on the island the 5 decided that this was PRIME fucking camping location. Set up camp and kid you not…. Had to be rescued by Italian Firefighters the next day #noshame. The group said that once darkness fell, the island started to haunt them. A sail boat heard their screams and called authorities (I was going to say 9-1-1 but that’s not the thing over there).

Currently, this island is illegal to visit… HOWEVER, we all know how that works…. People have reported paranormal experiences while on the island. The unwelcome visitors have reported seeing shadows on the walls walking down hallways, being pushed into walls by unseen hands, scratches suddenly appearing on their skin.

Less than a dozen psychics that have been on the island claim to feel malignant spirit. The island also houses the angry spirits whose lives were tragically ripped away from them. These lingering angry spirits frightened the psychics so deeply that some refused to return to the island. I’ve been some places that I’ve gotten bad juju vibes, and I’ve always trusted them juju vibes… listen to your vibes, wash your hands.

Years after the hospital closed in the 1960’s, a family BOUGHT the freaking plague island and thought about living there… UM Hello Watcher house? Anyone? No? Its okay. We’ll get there. Once the family arrived all bright eyed and excited for the new venture on their island *eye roll. Life was sure grand I’m sure for all of 5 hours… that night the family fled the island and never returned. The family later reported that their daughters face was almost ripped off by an entity of some sort…. WTF? This is why you don’t buy plague islands. Its not fucking rocket science.

The hospital remains on the island, slowing being reclaimed by the earth. Again, the island is illegal to visit, so we may never know what secrets the island holds dear to its heart. What spirits might be stuck in this horrible plane of existence.

Stay creepy my darlings- wash your hands. 

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Crystal