Have I mentioned my love for this show?

I love, LOVE the show Most Haunted on the Travel Channel. Now that we have our fancy Comcast DVR, I don't miss a single episode. I make a point to watch this show with my husband, but I'm getting to the point where I may just watch it solo. I'm getting rather tired of hearing him declare how much he hates the hostess, Yvette Fielding, and that she needs attention and is really annoying. While these things are true, he really kills the spookiness of the show by exclaiming every five seconds how he hates her.

I am particularly fond of shows that aren't all dolled up and kooky when it comes to ghosts and hauntings. I like the plain facts with no fireworks and stupid monologues around a giant haunted tree that has lit candles hanging from it. Throw in a realistic-looking seance and some possessions, and I am one happy gal.

I used to watch the Scariest Places on Earth on the Family Channel (of all channels -- very weird) until it turned into a dolled-up show with kooky witches (so they say) and no more really scary, realistic shots. It was on Friday night, and my husband used to work that night. I would get worked up when watching it because I was alone and everything seemed real and it was just plain creepy.

One show was particularly spooky, and I didn't hear my husband enter the apartment when he came home. I'm usually a very light sleeper, so when he approached the bed, sans shirt, I woke up with a start and only saw a glowing, white belly facing me. I screamed like a banshee and then cried. He tried to calm me down, but I was too far gone at this point. While my husband is not white, and his belly will always be darker than my arms, for some reason it was really white that night. From that point on, I don't really like watching my favorite spooky shows without him being there. That way, if I see a white something coming towards me, I know it has to be a ghost.

So I was glad to come across Most Haunted because it featured all the aspects I love in a good old fashion spooky ghost show. We have the annoying lady hostess that always looks like a deer in headlights with the night vision (oh, yes, your heard me -- night vision!), Derek Acorah, the medium who often gets possessed during seances and has a ghost buddy named Sam who tells him things so he can pass them on to us, the other medium they sometime use who wears a fur-lined hooded jacket and kinda looks like Moby and a bunch of crew members who are just like me and you -- regular blokes who get spooked easily. And they all love to swear like sailors! Good times!

My husband and I have debates on whether everything that happens is real or not. Sometimes we think Derek is a mighty fine actor. But I can't help but believe it. If they throw in some whacked out witch doctor or a medium that wore all black and had black hair and spoke in old timey British english, then I would be concerned. Oh, and the main part of the show is giving a brief history of the place they're visiting, and then dragging Derek around to see if he can pick up on anything that really happened. While he does do this periodically, he usually comes up with things that can't be confirmed. One time he was talking to a French Queen (deceased), and the commentator guy at the end who tries to give us every reason that disproves the incidents are real was baffled why he couldn't pronounce her name correctly since he was talking to her. They played it back, and I'm thinking Derek did a fine job. The telephone line between us and the the spirits must be a bit crackly, don't you think?

The first time you watch the show, you'll be just as amazed as I was with Derek and how he figures things out. Then, just like I did, you'll start to realize that he's got to be told where he's going, and based on that information, he could just as easily research the place and regurgitate the information. But his showmanship is spectacular.

I have such fond memories of the table in the attic being thrown into one of the guy's legs. And all the books that hit people. And that time Derek almost attacked the hostess while being possessed. Oh, what fun we all have.