I'm Officially a Tour Guide!!! (And I already had an odd experience...)

Okay, so I already broke my promise and haven't been too active this week, BUT for good reason. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently acquired a tour guide license to lead GHOST TOURS in Williamsburg! Whatever your opinions on ghosts may be, it's seriously the coolest job; just walking around Williamsburg after dark, sharing the gruesome, sickening and downright disturbing history of the colony (seriously guys, Williamsburg is a messed up place!) is a whole lot of fun!

EXCEPT you have to prepare pretty extensively for the tours. Just after publishing my last post last week, I was emailed my tour script...all SIXTY PAGES OF IT. I have been reading and rehearsing just about non-stop this week to get the history down. Now I always struggled with history in school, but apparently when it's all about death, torture and murder, I have it down like *that*. In addition to practicing on my own, I also shadowed a couple of guides on their tours to learn a little more about how the job goes (if anything, I'm even more excited than before!). 

After a week of practicing, I've gotten fairly comfortable, so last evening I gave some supervisory guides a test tour (the idea of giving a tour doesn't phase me, but the minute you call it a "test" my nerves are wrecked). Fortunately, it went incredibly well; I was told that I was one of the fastest to learn the entirety of the script, that I gave information that even they did not know (which is odd considering I did absolutely no research outside of reading the script) and have even been asked to begin practicing for the late night advanced tours (and I haven't even given my first public tour yet!).

Now, I promised that if anything interesting occurred during a tour I would report back here. Welllll, I had an interesting experience that, even if it wasn't paranormal, it's a particularly creepy coincidence. During my second shadowing tour, we were taking photos outside the Peyton Randolph house, considered to be one of the most haunted locations on the Eastern seaboard. One window in particular is always of interest, as photos often reveal what look like faces looking back (I've seen the pictures, but it's hard to trust images online these days, so I remained appropriately skeptical, but deep-down hopeful). I took approximately 10 photos of this window and in most of them got absolutely nothing, however, two pictures stood out. One was a sort of blur in the window pane, just a white blob that I assumed was an odd reflection. The second picture was a little more interesting as I saw what almost looked like a face peering out the window, at the same pane where the blur was in the previous photo. While it was creepy, I initially ignored it; it was really just a white shape with two black spots that looked to me like eyes/eye sockets. It was probably a weird reflection, and I just saw what I wanted to see. Here is the photo with the "face".

These are my own photos, taken on my galaxy phone and have not been edited in any way (except for zooming in).

I was walking back to the group when a woman behind me spoke up, saying there was something weird in her picture. She had zoomed in (the photo was really pixilated) and there was a shape that almost resembled a skull (again, it was one of those things that was really clear if you wanted to see it). Now, I was still skeptical, but I felt like my photo warranted another look....so I zoomed in on my own picture. Let me tell you, I still don't know what to think. Part of me is convinced it can't be real, while another part of me says it's too clear to be anything else, but every time I look at this photo it gets my heart pumping! When you zoom in on the photo (see below), you can make out what looks kind of like a nose between/beneath the eyes, but (in my opinion) the most alarming aspect is what's just below the nose. To me, I clearly see three teeth in the upper jaw!

I'm really at a loss on this one, guys. If it is a coincidental reflection, then good LORD is it really convincing. I'm curious to see what you all think of this. Maybe you see the same (not-so-friendly) looking face I do. Or maybe you think good ol' @herpetologyguy needs to get a little more sleep before his next tour. Nevertheless, it's a great story for my own tours (all the guides seem to have interesting experiences to share) and I can show off some impressing photos to my guests. I'll be spending a LOT of time around that house, so if anything else odd occurs, I'll do my best to report it here!

Note: I know a lot of you follow me for my herpetological content. Yes, I am still a herpetologist, and of course I will still write about that subject here on steemit! The weather here has been a bit uncooperative, but I hope to be out soon looking for our scale and slimy friends! I know it's been a while since I wrote about reptiles and amphibians, but I PROMISE I will get back to it soon, so thank you for your patience!

Image Links: 2