Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Just realized this Friday is Friday the thirteenth.  Guess it hadn’t stood out on my radar because frankly, I don’t believe much in superstitions and all the negative energy some associate with the date.  But then…there are times that make me second guess that….

Growing up, I had a close girlfriend.  We shared the same birthday and lived only a few blocks from one another.  As is apt to happen with younger kids, we shared a lot of the same friends.  As such, celebrating our birthdays with parties had to be coordinated with us alternating years.  One year, I’d get to have my party on Saturday, with hers being on Sunday.  The following year, we’d flip that around. 

The year I turned thirteen, my actual birthday just so happened to fall on Friday the thirteenth.  Didn’t think too much of it.  But the rest of my friends were spooked, thinking something terrible would happen.

That year, my girlfriend got to celebrate her party on the Saturday.  She did so with an overnight that had all of us up into the wee hours of the night, talking, giggling and playing silly sleepover games teenage girls are prone to.

By the time I went home the next morning—the day of my birthday party—I’d completely lost my voice, having overstrained it during the fun festivities of the night before.  So, for my thirteenth birthday party, I couldn’t do so much as utter a whisper.  Not even a peep.  Those who attended my party had been at my girlfriend’s the night before.  All of them attributed my having lost my voice to the jinx of my birthday having fallen on Friday the thirteenth.  I didn’t agree.  Still don’t.  But then…perhaps there was something to my thirteenth birthday falling exactly on Friday the thirteenth….

I’m curious.  Have others had interesting things happen to them on Friday the thirteenth?