So on the drive home from San Francisco yesterday, Nick and I spoke a little bit about the significance of the date. So I decided to do a little research and try and find out what made today such a “unlucky” day. I mean this year alone we had 3 months that had a Friday the 13th. Strangely the next time this occurs is in the year 2012, which purposely opens in theater officially today. What is ever more amusing to me is that there is a actual phobia for today, its called paraskevidekatriaphobia. Yes you read that right, so if you are one of those that is deathly frightened of the date, that’s your phobia. Try using that at the bar the next time you’re there.
So what is ever more interesting about the date is that before the 19th century it seems that there is little evidence of fear of the date. And there is no real true origin of the date. Many speculations and what not with the number 12 being a complete date and Friday just being unlucky. But it is beyond anything to explain how it became the phenomenon that it is now. From what it seems like searching for it, there are plenty of horror stories of this date for people. But no one knows why. Retailers do worse today and it seems as years past more people fear doing anything important on this date. But it also a day where data is showing less car accidents occur then the usual Friday.
I feel that the media, once again, helps push us to this way. With the movie series and doing new reports about it, helps fuel the fire that is the hysteria around the date. I mean if I didn’t watch the news or read articles online I probably would not have even noticed the date. Honestly I think today is the best day to take a chance because so many other people are fearful to try anything. Maybe one year I’ll throw a black cat and broken mirror costume party on a Friday the 13th and our meeting place will be to walk around the city. Now that will cause hilarity and some fear. 
Let’s play a game. It’s called “If I could be a kid again for a day I would…”. It’s pretty fun because you think of stuff that are not allowed especially in this crazy world we now live in.
If I could be a kid again for a day I would…
- Grab a bike and ride around the whole city with my friends. Giving people pumps and having no direction on where we were headed.
- Eat everything I loved because I wouldn’t worry about how unhealthy it was for me or how it was fattening or what people thought of how I looked.
- Play video games from start to end straight through, chomping on asian junkfood treats the whole time.
- Dress in whatever I grabbed with no care for matching or colors or getting dirty.
- Tell my parent’s I loved them for putting up with me.
- Hang out with the neighbor kid’s to play basketball, roller hockey or water balloon fight.
- Stay up really late and talk to a special girl on the phone for hours about nothing.
- Drink 6 boxes of Vitasoy drink in a row.
- Ask my parents to go through the carwash so I could see the water, soap and suds through the window.
- Eat dim sum with my whole family.
- Play tennis and hit back and forth with my friends until we couldn’t see anymore.
- Watch Transformers the animated movie and hide my face when Optimus Prime died because I would be crying.
- Be nice to my younger sister….maybe not :-p
- Draw and doodle, because I thought I was good and I stopped doing it for some reason.
- Make 100 tiny origami swans, because my hands were smaller and I remembered how.
- Go swimming and learn to open my eyes underwater without being scared.
- Watch Dragonball Z in Japanese, don’t understand any of it, but still love it like it was the best thing ever.
- Grab cardboard and pretend I knew how to breakdance on the driveway.
- Act like I didn’t have a care in the world. No bills, no worries, no responsibilities, be free….
Felt it was necessary to post this again…
“1918 – World War I ends: Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France. The war officially stops at 11:00 (The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) this is annually honoured with two-minutes of silence.” – Wikipedia
So today goes out to all the people who have taken the time to help support this country. This is not a vote for or against war or the issues of the armed forces. But a time to remember and thank those who serviced the country. It is also a day remembered not only by the USA but by many other countries all over the world. So I tip my hat to all the Vet’s and the sacrifices they gave for us to live the way we do in this country.
