WOOHOO! I'm always happy when a Friday 13 rolls around. Once my doglet got out of the house during a storm and she was gone for 9 weeks. I'd given her up for lost forever, but I got her back on Friday 13th. Ever since then, me and my dog have been in bonus round together, gravy-train style. This was a phenomenal moment in my life - mourning her and realizing I would happily trade any material possession I owned just to have her back. Thinking that, I pictured me and the dog, cowering under an overpass naked, but happy to have each other. And then, Eureka! A minor miracle.
I'm not superstitious, anyway, and I know there's no significance to the number of the day - it was just a neat idea to hang my hat on, the fact that I got a phone call from a woman who'd been harboring my long lost doggie for 5 weeks and had even taken her on family vacation with them to Florida. That's a wild story I'll tell you some time.
In my digging about in vintage jewelry, I've noticed there are quite a lot of gold charms and pendants from the late Victorian era that are simply the number 13, so I'm guessing it must have been associated with good fortune back then.
What I wonder is what is up with no 13th floor on high-rise buildings? Are people really so silly that they won't live or office on the 13th floor? Is this merely a Western thing, or do they not put a 13th floor in skyscrapers in Indonesia or Bahrain or Tokyo, too?
If I had such a galloping neurosis, I'd be embarrassed for other people to know about it, frankly. I wouldn't advertise my idiocy by not having a 13th floor in a huge building I was erecting. Duh.
Then again, I suppose you can't afford to have an entire level of a structure that people are too intellectually stunted to set foot upon. So, I suppose there are boatloads of numbnuts out there who live/work on the 14th floor relieved not to be living/working on the 13th floor, when in fact, they live/work on the 13th floor, dagnabbit.
Who understands?
12 comments:
I hear ya loud and clear...
I never thought I'd mind staying on the 13th floor, but I always thought it was kind of a cool quirk - a little hat tip to something that was completely unnecessary.
jag - mmm-hmmm.
zelda - *L* That's a better way of viewing, it, of course.
What a great story about getting your baby back!
A (non-too-bright) friend of my daughter's swears that he remembers Hallowe'en one time falling on a Friday the 13th.
I know a surgeon who normally operates on Fridays. But he won't cut on Friday, the 13th. Just think about all the edumacashun this fella has. And I know him well enough to ask, he has no other superstitions, just that one. Got spooked in his Rezaduncy, and won't cut on any Body on those daze.
BTW, think it's tres kewl two of my favorite bloggers share a B'day. I'm the ESM to his SNSS.
Don't put anything into these sorts of superstitions. Not in me.
My original cat, named "Hissy" by me because she used to hiss and spit at everyone (wild as hell), the original boo boo kitty who lived under my furniture for months after I "saved" her off the street, went for a walk once that lasted about 40 or 50 days. Came home in the middle of a rain storm with one leg stuck through her collar, with her skin torn and bleeding under her arm from it. Stupid bitch. She's still with me, and her countenance improved immeasurably from the experience. Now she's the dowager boo boo, and the queen of the house. Total diva. The love of my life, so far.
I lost the plot and had to go back to September 22 to and back. So you had TWO road trip with your Mom, a wedding and a funeral, and neither of them were to Arizona. How did I get all THAT wrong? Never mind.
In Japan, 4 (death) and 9 (pain) are bad numbers, so many old-style Japanese inns don't have room numbers with those, though to avoid ALL that prpoblem, rooms are often named for mountains, lakes, flowers, trees, yada, yada yada. Some smaller (catering mainly to Japanese) don't have 4's and 9's, some mid-sized ones don't have 4's, 9's, 13's; I think I've seen big hotels where they use teh 13th for ... like .... utlilty, like lanudry, and storage for all the soaps, and stuff. I also know hotels that have all of them, 4's, 9's and 13's, and they don't worry unless you request not to be roomed in these, I suppose. But then in Japan, we have tons of bad luck (and good luck) numbers, so if you tried to avoid them all, well, you'd be spending an awfully lot of time looking for a suitable number.
So I noted a few good 'recommend' books in this here blog, but I was thinking, I'd rather go all the way back to when you started the blog and get more pleausre/burst-out loud experience, yeah? Good on you (and your family) for providing such a great public service, especially the one about your grandpa's toilet, (and your 3-once water pump) and your father and the baby! Phew. If it were anyone else, I'd say, you made it up.
At the risk of commenting way too long in an uninspired, unsnappy manner (you get such great comments on such a great blog!) now that you've shown us your beads, I want to see the finished products, pllleeeeeaaaaaassssssseeeee. I'm heaps older thank you, so I may not live long enough to see them unless I beg, yeah?
Love you from afar.
Hold on. Didn't you say you were going to see your grandmother in Arizona, after you said everybody should see an Arizona sunset before we die? Were there THREE road trips? (Sorry, I hear the rest of the fan club saying, "who cares any more...")
I ran over an alligator with my train on Friday...
I wonder what kind of bad luck that would bring...
barbara - I know it would be futile, but do you--like me--get the urge to give that young lad a talking-to? Yes, I'm loving having my little dog - so thankful for her everyday.
hollyb - I guess that's how it happens - a person gets a negative association and then no amount of reason or common sense will dissuade them from believing it was not just a coincidence. I like having the same birthday as cool people - nothing wrong with that!
fathairybastard - actually - Hissy sounds like a good match for you - and I love the name. Congrats on getting her back - that's so odd, suddenly showing up with the paw stuck in the collar - as if she had though she could live without you until faced with this major physical dilemma, and she just HAD to have you fix it!
meg - that is so funny to think about numbers being so much more symbolic in another culture, but then again, I knew that Japanese culture at large has a different sensibility entirely than the West about mysticism and the like. I like the idea of naming hotel rooms for tranquil and inspiring places and ideas, rather than numbers - it seems so much more placid and relaxing that way, doesn't it? Less anonymous.
Wow, you do me great compliment - I'm glad you enjoy reading my blog - I do enjoy writing it and I love conversing with people who interest me via the comments section. I promise, one of these days, I'll post a finished piece of jewelry with my beads.
My grandma in Arizona died in June of 2005, and I've made multiple trips out to see her, mostly road trips, and sometime several times in one year. And the recent trips with mom were Arkansas for the wedding and Oklahoma for the funeral. Oh, and I love you back, babe!
ranger tom - I don't know - I think running over and alligator might be a fortuitous sign, in fact. I'm just guessing - so did you feel it when you ran over it? A teeny bump, or anything?
Yea, that's what I thought. She blew me off till she realized she needed me. They all do.
slutty pet! THere's a lot of them about!
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