Thursday the 13th

I’ve never been superstitious person. I don’t mind black cats walking in my path, walking under ladders doesn’t bother me and I intentionally chose number 13 as my high school volleyball number.

My first memory of Friday the 13th is a fifth grade fire drill. Somehow the classroom snake escaped while we were outside. Don’t ask me what kind of snake it was, or if they ever found it. I suppose someone considered that unlucky, but as fifth graders, we found it entertaining.

I’ve always considered Friday the 13th to be a lucky, or at least amusing, day for me.

Thursday the 13th is a different story.As I woke up on the 13th day of May, rain fell gently on the roof. It had been raining for days. The sky was gloomy. The night before I dropped my car off with a mechanic, who would take the 13th to repair an oil leak. That loss of control was difficult, but I could deal with it for one day.

Then the charger for my computer failed. My computer battery died and I had no access to the documents on my computer or the Internet. This lack of control would be more difficult to overcome. As a writer, my computer contains much of my life.

My friend and colleague, Dave, drove across town to buy me a new charger. He even delivered it. Then we discovered it was the wrong one.

Around Noon my friend, Karla, picked me up and took me to the computer store. A pleasant British man informed me that Apple no longer makes the charger I needed, but he could sell me a generic version. No problem. I could already envision plugging it in, pushing the power button and hearing the chime that my computer was back.

Karla and I arrived at our part-time jobs at a magazine publishing company.

That’s when we discovered the power cord didn’t work. I become suspicious of Thursday the 13^th – it was playing out like a bad country song.

The mechanic called. He would fix the $400 oil problem to see if that would take care of the possible $700 problem.

The boss at the publishing company needed two news releases and some web articles written. The sales representative needed an email written for advertisers in an upcoming magazine issue. Everyone was talking at once. I wanted to crawl into bed and start the day over. That’s when I realized I was trapped in that place without a car. And it was still raining.

I tried to settle in at a designer’s computer, but quickly realized that designers don’t believe in Microsoft Word. I felt out of my comfort zone.

The friend I had lined up to take me to my car at the mechanic at 5 o’clock called and said I would have to find another alternative.

I hung up the phone. My shoulders relaxed and I laughed. There was nothing else to do.

I didn’t like you, Thursday the 13th.

Friday the 14th turned out to be much better for my luck. The sun showed its face early on the way to delivering a 70-degree day. I got my car back and the pleasant British man at the computer place fixed my charger problem. That, and the coffee shop piled the cappuccino smoothie I ordered extra high.

Friday the 14th, you’re okay.