L is for Luck

As a teenager, I wore grey socks to all my exams because I believed that grey socks (particularly comfy ones) would bring me good luck.  This custom continued until my final year of high school, when I received a fairly bad mark on a calculus exam while wearing my lucky socks.  My socks' luck ran out.

A few years ago, my grandmother gave me a necklace with a jade elephant pendant. As everyone knows, elephants are very lucky, particularly jade ones.  I wear it around my neck when I need courage or luck (or when I'm wearing something green that matches). Since Omi's death, the elephant has new meaning.  She picked it out, she held it in her hands, she gave it to me, and now she's gone.  She's gone and the elephant remains. Whether I succeed or fail while I wear the pendant doesn't matter.  The elephant can't lose its luck.  It was given to me by someone who loved me.

Recently I've decided to re-enter the workforce. I've tailored my résumé to a few select employers who I might enjoy working for and who may or may not want me to work for them. I've had ego-bruising failures in the job search before, so the idea of putting myself out there gives me emotional heartburn.  (Also I haven't worked out the logistics of childcare).  I've decided that I only want to work for someone who would appreciate both my personality and my talents, and I'm trying to maintain a lack of desperation. Wish me luck!

With Any Luck

Since I haven't posted in almost a week, I'm sure some of you have assumed that I'm in the hospital pushing out a kid. No such luck. However, with only eight days to go, I'm looking for signs that the luck of the universe is on my side.

William has been suffering a pretty bad cold the past few days. So bad, in fact, that the only way he could sleep last night was if I slept the entire night beside him in his car bed (had to be me, because I'm the Mommy, Daddy doesn't have magic mommy powers). Luckily, my husband opted to make William a full sized twin, rather than a toddler-sized bed.

Still, a sick child is bad luck, but this morning I had some related good luck. I had a prenatal appointment and was going to take Mr. William to the walk-in at the same time, before I went I called our family doctor (same building as my preggers doc) on the slim chance that I could get William an appointment. Not only did they actually give me an appointment, but they gave me one a half-hour after mine!

Unluckily, William and I were both called in at around the same time and my Dad had to take William in. William has an ear-infection (surprise, surprise).

Luckily, my doctor says the baby's head has dropped lower than it was last week. Unluckily, he says I probably have at least another week to go.

Luckily, I remembered to buy diapers. I bought a crossword scratch ticket while I was there, to look for further signs of luck. I lost but, if only I'd had the letters H, N, R, and Y, I would have won 50 thousand dollars.

Luckily William fell asleep in the car, and actually stayed asleep when I put him in bed. Unluckily, he just woke up, just now.

Luckily, the Cleavage anthology, which has my story in it, just got a good review which mentions my piece in particular as one that young girls can relate to.

So with any luck, if you add up all this bad and good luck, carry the one, we should see a baby girl sometime before Christmas.