Superstitious

To continue from where I left off yesterday, I wouldn't say that I am superstitious. While I wouldn't go around breaking mirrors or walking under ladders (because that's dangerous), I don't really care about black cats anymore, or the number 13 (or 4). However, I do have some little quirks that could be considered as such. Although most of them are from my mum.

My mum believes that you cannot wash your hair while you are on your period. I don't understand the rationale behind it at all, as I don't see how washing your hair and addled hormones can be a cause for bad luck. I guess maybe back in the old days, if you were on your period, and your hair was wet, it might drip down your back and soak through your underwear, which might soak through to whatever you're using to catch the blood. That's not really an issue these days though, as we have hairdryers.

She also believes that you shouldn't cut your hair or nails after dark. Perhaps that stems from it being too dark to be able to see properly, and so you may end up cutting off a finger, or an ear, but again, that's not really an issue these days with modern lighting.

One of her superstitions that we do stick to is that you're not supposed to do any sweeping after Chinese New Year, because you will sweep the bad luck away. Though we mostly follow that one because we rarely do any sweeping all year long, so it's not really like we do it for superstitious reasons.

Although, I've noticed that whenever I have a big thing coming up, I'm all for trying to keep on the good side of Lady Luck, just in case. I mean, with a lot of these little things, does it really hurt to knock on wood, or avoid stepping on the cracks on the footpath? I read that a lot of sports stars are incredibly superstitious, needing to wear their lucky underwear, or make sure they dress themselves in a particular order. When you think about it, ever single match is a big event for them, because how well they perform will determine whether they get to stay employed or not. Out of all the athletes, not many of them will get the chance to become mega stars like Ian Thorpe, and with the exception of perhaps golf, a lot of sports have a very limited time span in which you are at your peak, so unless you can make enough to retire at a young age, you need to make yourself at least somewhat bankable, or line up a potential career path for after you're booted off the team. So the more great matches you have, the higher your chances of securing sponsorship deals, or radio spots.

I have this little thing about the milk in the fridge at the office. If there's more cartons of soy milk than regular milk in the fridge, then I know it's going to be a good day. If there's no soy milk in the fridge, but there is one floor up, then that's OK. If I have to go hunting more than one floor away from my own, then I know it's going to be a horrible day. If there are equal or less cartons of soy milk than regular milk, then it can go either way. I don't know how much of that is self-fulfilling or confirmation bias, but damn, it's really nice to get in in the mornings and find five cartons of soy milk in the fridge.