Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Are you superstitious?

It's odd to wake up early in the morning and the first thing that greets you when you open up the door is the piercing cold wind that immediately numbed your face and you wished for a warmer weather that you are so used to several thousand miles back home across the Pacific.

It’s even eerier when the only sound that you can hear is the sound of your footfalls echoing in the sleepy neighborhood and you realize that today is Friday the 13th, that day of days dreaded by a lot of people all over the world.

I don’t particularly pay much attention to these things for I am not superstitious but today an uncanny thought immediately crossed my mind while I was walking through the wet walkway on a stormy morning heading to my parked car in the deserted parking garage of the flat that is my “home” for almost three years now.

I can’t help it but I remember my old friend Jason, he of the notorious sequel- rich urban legend cum slasher flick, Friday the 13th and visions of him standing behind the lazy lighted lamp posts began to haunt me but soon vanished the though from my silly mind.

When I was about to reach for my car’s door a black cat suddenly materialized out of nowhere and as if taunting me began ogling me while I buckled up my seat belt and started the engine and slowly drove off into the road and accelerating into the freeway while humming to the music of Aerosmith.

I was already cruising at over 90 miles per hour in the freeway and pretending to be Michael Schumacher or Dale Earnhardt, Jr when I realized that in my hurry to get to work and beat the clock I forgot my wallet in my computer desk and in it all my pertinent papers and money that includes my ever precious drivers license. So, I was in the dilemma of either turning around and head back for my flat and get my driver’s license or just continue driving along.

I chose the latter and almost regretted it for after exiting the freeway and as I stopped at the first traffic light on the way, an unmarked police car pulled up beside me and the uniformed lady officer ask me to roll down my window and told me,

“Sir, you’re going 50 in a 30 mph road.”

I smiled sheepishly and apologized to her for speeding over the limit and it’s a good thing that the police officer was still in a good mood at 6 am or probably as the old saying goes, she woke up on the right side of the bed or perhaps my sweet smile and inherent charm did some magic(ha-ha) or probably the scrubs I’m wearing for police officers are kind to the health profession or lady luck just smiled on me or a thousand other reasons but I did not really care to boggle my mind for she let me go without much ado. Just like that, she let me go and in the process keeps my driving record immaculately clean saving me a lot of insurance money in the process!

To make the long story short I beat the clock at work with plenty to spare and drove home in the afternoon with Schumi and Formula One on my mind but this time I decided not to push my luck and stayed within the posted speed limits.

So, who said that Friday the 13th is unlucky?


Let me just leave you with some points to ponder courtesy of Dr. Donald Dossey a psychotherapist who is also a folklore historian and author of Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun---

"What you think about, you begin to feel. What you feel generates what you do. And what you do creates how you will become."