vote – Cedarcrest Sanctum

Early to Rise and Early to Vote — Vampire Verisimilitude

October 25, 20181 Comment

I wasn’t waiting to vote this year. I want it counted now. I want to push the damn buttons, not fill out a form.

Just a bit of a problem…

The early voting place in Glenville, West Virginia is the county courthouse on Howard Street. Their hours are 8am to 4 pm on Wednesdays, the first day of early voting.

Aaaaaaaaaand sunset is 6:31:57 pm.

This is where making a plan with my guys wins out.

I’ve mentioned before how horrible it feels to be out of my grave during the day — imagine what being dead and rotted feels like if you could still feel — in addition to the fact that direct sunlight shows me looking like a corpse to anyone who sees me. It’s cool enough for gloves and coat in the mid-sixties, but it’s partly cloudy and I’m not partial to hoodies.

Carrying an open umbrella would have looked ridiculous, but I was going to draw attention showing up no matter what I did.

I do, however, have an amazing London Fog trench coat… poppy red, my favorite color. On a whim a few months ago, I considered having a bit of fun before going all in.

Kelly Jean roused me up at 2:30 in the afternoon with a midday cup of ambition (no, not coffee) before Cole and Travis met us in the garage. As we pulled up as close to the courthouse as they’d let us, as I donned my new custom “voting cap”: a poppy-red custom wool Fedora with a sombrero-wide brim and black-buckle accent.

Sorry, Agent Carter.

Collar popped and hat pulled down, I walked inside as full-on Carmen Isabela Sandiego… and voted.

We all three did. They had me back in my crypt before four.

Have you voted? It’s important, guys.

Trust me — I’m a Vampire.

Take your power seriously. Keep each other safe. Be indomitable.
~ Janiss

Email janiss.connelly@cedarcrestsanctum.com
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Two Vampires Talk Politics – Daughters of Darkness

November 20, 2016November 22, 20164 Comments

2016daughtersofdarkness Janiss: Welcome to Daughters of Darkness, a candid discussion between two immortals, myself being almost three decades old —

Nancy: (interrupting) Including living years.

J: Right, and yourself being almost three centuries old by way of comparison… also including living years.

N: You’re not really calling it that, are you?

J: What? “Daughters of Darkness”? We are. We’re night folk. It’s clever, damn it — roll with it.

N: We’re just Vampires, Janiss. Please continue.

J: Right… cool. So, okay, we’re talking about the 2016 election —

N: If we have to. I see they misspelled our code names on the cocoa again.

J: (smirks) I told them to do that on purpose. You know, like when we first —

N: (patronizing) Of course you did.

J: I figured it could be a thing.

N: (sarcastic) Of course you did.

J: Ahem. Getting back to it, I voted for Hillary. Nancy, who did you vote for?

N: As I texted back to you: not Hillary.

J: So why’d you vote for the other guy?

N: The president-elect’s name is Donald J. Trump, and I didn’t vote for him, either.

J: (long pause) I’m… confused. When I asked you here —

N: You asked if I voted for Ms. Clinton.

J: Right. And you said…
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Small Town Mentality – Vampire Verisimilitude

May 1, 2016Leave a comment

We here at Cedarcrest Sanctum enjoy the benefits of a small community. Between residents and staff, we’re a hundred strong, and we all work together. It’s home to many of us, but at its heart, Cedarcrest still has to run like a business, the same as any household. When things aren’t working, it stands out; you can’t really hide issues like that in a crowd when there isn’t one.

GlenvilleStreetside Our town of Glenville, West Virginia, is small — a little over 1,500 people — but unlike much of The Mountain State, the population is increasing. Glenville State College has expanded, like the Waco Center that opened a few years back providing a field house for the college and the county — so named for the significant donations made by Waco Oil & Gas founders Ike and Sue Morris (names that are hard to avoid in these parts). My grandparents enjoyed the weekly publications of The Glenville Democrat, a local newspaper that’s still here with one foot firmly planted in our digital world. And for those who remember, you no longer have to drive thirty or more miles into Weston or out to Flatwoods to get a McDonald’s cheeseburger anymore.

There are bad things, too, of course. Whispers of corruption for personal gain, crimes going unpunished, and the reputation that too much of West Virginia has become a safe haven for drug traffickers and a new source of addicts. With substance abuse also comes related crimes, some against the elderly to squeeze whatever money can be found for that next fix. With a local police force you can count on one hand and budget shortfalls toward law enforcement and investigation, I can only imagine how pointless it must feel at times. “It’s just Glenville,” all the larger and more important cities say.

What many of you have asked is why Cedarcrest isn’t doing something about it.

Here’s the truth: we can’t.

We just can’t.

What we do here requires maintaining a low profile. While I hesitate to use the word “outsider,” too many wouldn’t understand what we do here at Cedarcrest; even I questioned it when I was told what was really happening here. Vampires? Really? Keeping aging retirees alive in return for feeding their host? Never mind using special abilities or even donations to influence the community. We get to vote…like everyone else. The townsfolk can meet and talk and influence. What Cedarcrest can and is able to do is assess and combat threats that the local police (with noted exceptions) aren’t able to handle, the consequences of being here and taking responsibility for our presence.

I want those outside forces focused on me, not those around us.

So it’s as simple as that; Cedarcrest must leave Glenville to its own devices. Not because we hate it or we’re cruel but because wounds have to heal from the inside out. If I go to a council member or a constable and make them change their policies or direct resources in a particular direction, we’ll have to keep doing it, and I have no desire to run a small town like an immortal dictator. What’s next? Building a castle on the hilltop overlooking the cemetery? Brigades of peasants armed with torches and pitchforks to root out evildoers and drag them out to funeral pyres?

Okay, that last idea has merit, but we all have to follow the rules!

I understand the idea; all this power and money should be able to do more…but it can’t. It takes people willing to take back what’s theirs, campaign for the common good, and willing to listen as well as talk. It takes integrity to refuse controlled substances, ensure our friends and family refuse them as well, and eliminate the market.

I see more here than just sixty retirees. I see years of experience and strong wills, ties to the community and hopes for the future. It’s easy to point fingers and shake our heads about the way things used to be, but the phones work and you can call someone. You can send a text or post online. You can reach out and encourage others to help one another. We need to get the conversation going and make it okay for those who need help to keep their pride when they ask for it.

Decide what you want and make sure everyone knows it.

Glenville is your town, too.

Keep each other safe.

~ Janiss

Email janiss.connelly@cedarcrestsanctum.com
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Bloodsucking Lawyers and Washington Undead – Vampire Verisimilitude

February 28, 20164 Comments

VotedSticker 2016 is an election year. This is the first you’ve probably heard about all this, right?

“…the only one I’ve got on my side is the bloodsucking lawyer!”

My dad used to say lawyers are the larval stage of politicians. Have you ever wondered if there are any Vampires who moonlight as professional lawyers or politicians?

Short answer: nope.

No Vampire right in the head wants a job that puts them in the public spotlight (restricting their movements) or requires daylight hours (a tricky prospect under the best of conditions). Does that mean the interests of Vampires aren’t represented? Who speaks for the Undead?

To put representation into perspective, a quick refresher. There are less than 500 Vampires within the continental United States; even if you lumped them all into one small town, that would be one-third of the population of Glenville, WV — and if such a thing ever came to pass, there would be only about half a dozen left before sunrise (we infamously don’t get along in close quarters).

TrueBloodAVL In terms of representation, it isn’t necessary for Vampires. In the HBO “True Blood” series, Vampires campaigned for the rights of the Undead with opponents making claims that wills and property legally didn’t apply to creatures that rose from the grave. The AVL — the American Vampire League — fought to get changes made so that known Vampires could enjoy the same rights and benefits they had in life. Crazy, right? It was a footnote in the TV show, but it also makes a lot of sense; there’s plenty of history in the US and around the world where significant portions of the population have been told they have no rights — that they aren’t really people — no more significant to be represented than would animals.

We want what you want: safety, prosperity, and peace — what ANYBODY wants, free to do as we like and rights that end at the next person’s nose. It shouldn’t matter what you eat (unless you’re a murderer), how you live your life (unless you impose upon others against their will), or who you spend time with and how (consenting adult being consenting adults). Fortunately, there are few enough of us that we can help ourselves within the system, appointed positions that remain in-office year after year while elected officials all have to keep being re-elected. If we’re not represented fairly, that individual will be forcibly removed from office if they refuse to step down…or so I’m told. It works for us.

The living, however, can’t take those kinds of chances and don’t have forever.

In other words: VOTE if you are eligible.

Dracula2016Vote Don’t assume everyone else will do it for you. Voter turn-out is a problem; in 2012, only 129 million people voted for the US President, less than half of those eligible among the 314 million population of the country. That means if everyone who didn’t vote all decided to vote for someone else, none of the front-runners on that election would have stood a chance.