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one person, me, who gets thirsty, but does not want just water and is tired of the crappy green tea the office provides.

two: the time of day that I realize that I am thirsty and I am going into food coma. Considering that I have no change for which to feed the vending machine, and given the limited number of choices available, I have two options for a beverage - coffee and hot chocolate.

three 12-ounce cups of hot chocolate. Three cups requires six packets of mix - as each packet requires six ounces of water.

hot water.

three is also the number of half-full to full lip medex containers on my person. Somehow, there was one in every pocket that did not have a hole in my coat.

four: the number of times hot water splashed on me, resulting in the silent screams under my breath. Fortunately for me, our office is equipped with white noise generators which muffle the sounds of my yelps. These white noise generators are very similar to the sound I hear when I have left a loud club or concert, so I feel like my ears are ringing for ten hours of the day. Four also happens to be the number of people that played poker last night. Going back to three, three of the four could be considered fish in a barrel. Going back to two, the number of hours it took me to dispatch each of them of their chips. But that has nothing to do with anything right now...

five is the number of cups of hot chocolate that I estimate I will quaff over the rest of the work day. This could also be the number that I will visit the bathroom over the rest of the calendar day. Five also happens to be the number of fingers that I have on one hand, as well as the number of toes I have on one foot.

six: the number after five, which is also just here because I was on such a good roll that I thought I would keep going. But now I will stop.

I am not supposed to be superstitious - good Catholic and all of that.

I am really not superstitious...

anymore.

Growing up, I read a lot of books, and, as I was quite impressionable, I succumbed to their notions because I thought they were quite neat and they were in a book.

I could distinguish fiction from fact, as I was not one who got so immersed into a game that I lived the game, but the occult really sank its hooks deep in me.

vampires (vampyr, vampir), werewolves (lycanthropus, lycanthrope), magic, voodoo - you name it, I read up on it and reveled in it, became obsessed with it...

It got to the point where I would only sleep with my head pointing north,
I would never walk with only one shoe on,
I would never cut my nails before Monday or after Thursday,
I always walked ten steps backwards when I had to turn around,
I never stepped on a visible crack,
I always picked up pennies, but only if they were face up,
I always picked up pins, but only if they were pointing away from me,
I always threw spilt salt over my left shoulder
etcetera,
etcetera,
ad nauseum...

it was quite silly, but I was so practiced in all of these superstitions that it became automatic to the point it was so natural to me that no one would notice.

but, man, it took a lot of effort.

In the mind of the child that was me, I truly believed that I could be bewitched and that this catastrophe would happen and that I could affect this person...

then one day, out of nowhere...

I got bored with it.

that game was over.

"... when I became a man, I did away with childish things..."

well...

mostly...

}:-)

Today, I will still catch myself automatically performing some superstitious action here or there - and when I do, I force myself to break that superstition, just to get out of that cycle.

Other times, they are just habits that were based on a superstition, but hold no unnatural or supernatural meaning for me.

When people could not understand what was happening, they rationalized it away by projecting that fear onto an everyday occurrence. Coincidence and serendipity can make an animal the harbiner of death or messenger of fortune.

How nice.

except for...

now when people come across seven headed dragons, they think it will destroy them, when really he is just working out.

so remember - be nice to deadly looking seven-headed dragons, because sometimes, you are a deadly looking seven-headed dragon, too.

... ... ...

Anyhow, now, all of that knowledge of superstition has just become trivia for me.

nothing more than chicanery and hogwash...

simply just

writing on the wall... Read more.