Ufo People
Things are heating up with my UFO sighting situation. And when I say "heating up," I mean reaching room temperature. UFO Field Investigation is slow work, it turns out, whether you're the Investigator or the Investigated. To recap: I am currently investigating my own sighting, planning to investigate a friend's sighting, and getting set to be investigated by a MUFON Field Investigator regarding my sighting. It's a lot to sort out. Just the same, I hope to have a thorough status report on all these investigations very soon, but in the meantime I have some unfinished business to attend to.

A while back I reported that a friend had approached me about sharing "a lifetime of UFO experiences" after getting wind of my blog. I was pretty excited to get the invitation, and very respectful of the fact that Xxxx had decided to open up and share such personal experiences with me. I had a meeting with Xxxx a few weeks back, the first of what I hope will be many, and we had a wonderful conversation. This is a person who has had some profound life experiences, not all of them on this level of reality, and who has spent many years trying to make sense of them all. The stories I heard were so intricate, so vivid, so rich, that after our hour's conversation was up, Xxxx had only just gotten to the UFO part... In a word: wow.

To be honest, I have barely begun to process everything I heard that day, which is one reason I haven't blogged about it until now. But I fully expect that as I continue down this path, my experiences may in some small way parallel those of Xxxx, and I will use my friend's stories as guideposts along the way...

Meanwhile, I conducted a reconnaissance mission today at the "Sci-Fi Cafe" in Burlington, WI, a small city not far from where I grew up. And when I say "reconnaissance mission" I mean I stopped in to use the rest room. I was tipped off to the existence of the Sci-Fi Cafe by MUFON's announcement of the 4th Annual Burlington Vortex Conference, an honest-to-goodness UFO conference to be held next month at the Cafe, pretty much right in my back yard. I had already signed up for a one-day pass to the event, but when I found myself passing close by Burlington today and looking for a place to take a pit-stop, it seemed predestined that I should pay a visit.

While there, I met Brad, one of the owners of the Cafe, and had a nice talk with him about his business and about the Vortex Conference. I told him I was excited to meet two of the speakers at the event, Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden, co-authors of the UFO book I had just read. He told me with some pride that this would make Mr. Friedman's fourth appearance at the event. In fact, Brad said that when he and his wife decided to give Friedman a year off last year, he called them up and asked if he could come anyway, because he hated to miss a year.

I couldn't stay long, so I bought a coffee from Brad and was on my way, but I left with a good feeling about the place. The simple fact that the Sci-Fi Cafe exists is enough to put a smile on my face.