Don't b+RING Me Down (Thursday Thirteen #21)

In early March, I stopped at a local Irish store to get some St. Patrick’s Day t-shirts. They had all of their jewelry on sale and I saw a claddagh ring. The ring was silver with an emerald (just like the picture) and it was almost identical to the one I had as a child. I decided to buy it for myself.

Since the day after I bought that ring, my life has been turned into a string of one bad thing after another. I don’t know how I connected this ring in my mind to the run of bad luck, but somehow, two days ago, I did. After a little research, I learned that it is terribly bad luck to purchase a claddagh ring for yourself. They must be given as a gift or handed down, but never purchased by the intended wearer. You'd think the owner of the Irish store might have mentioned this when she was helping me find one in the right size.

My mom is rather superstitious about bad spirits and things like that. She was your everyday kind of mom, but she was also a palm reader. My mom worked as a claims adjuster, so palm reading certainly wasn’t her profession, it was a hobby. She also wasn’t graced with this as an innate skill, she actually went to school to learn how to do it.

Still, my sister and I were warned to steer clear of Ouija boards for fear some demon spirit would overtake us and once, when a deck of tarot cards found me (as opposed to me seeking out my own deck of tarot cards) my mother freaked and ran out with them in her nightgown into the dark of night to get rid of them somehow. I never asked because at 16, you know, I really didn’t care to know.

I’m nowhere near that superstitious and I decided to keep wearing the ring because I liked it, but yesterday was the final straw for me. I got pulled over for speeding. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t all that horrific an ordeal, but I wasn’t speeding. Traffic was so heavy that you could barely move.

I know why he pulled me over. Having studied and worked in law enforcement myself, I know that anything out of place can be considered suspicious. I was dropping off my daughter at a friend’s house in one of the most exclusive areas around here. Million and multi-million dollar homes, private communities, Bentley’s in the driveway, the whole shebang and I pulled in in my Kia which currently very badly needs a bath and has a completely smashed in back end, let daughter out of the car at the house (which he probably didn’t see) and drove right back out. If I were a cop I probably would have pulled me over too, but if you’re going to make up your “probable cause”, at least make the cause probable. That’s all I’m saying.

When I got home last night, with big crocodile tears, I took off the ring and threw it away. I’m not sure of the proper way to dispose of a mean spirited claddagh ring. I couldn’t find anything on the internet and I’m sure my mom would know, but I didn’t want her to freak out and have to run out in her pajamas, so I took matters into my own hands.

Was my streak of bad things really related to that claddagh ring? Time will tell, I’m sure.

Today is Thursday Thirteen....and here’s mine...

Thirteen BAD THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED SINCE I BOUGHT THIS RING 1 and 2. I am keeping these to myself because I don’t care to blog about either one. Both happenings have had a more than significant impact on my life. You’ll have to trust me. 3. Three days after I bought the ring, I woke up in the middle of the night with not one, but two, abscessed teeth. 4. Since I bought the ring, I have been at the dentist and the oral surgeon more times than I think I might have ever been in my entire life, pre-ring purchase. I practically live there now. I never had so much as a cavity before. 5. My dad had a stroke. 6. I had some unknown cyst appear in my eyelid requiring emergency inside-out eyelid cyst removal surgery. That alone is enough to give you nightmares. 7. My beloved dog, the one I met on St. Patrick’s Day and named Bailey for the Irish Creme, went berserk and I had to put him down. 8. I got rear ended in a four car accident on an expressway caused by a hit and run driver and along with my daughter ended up in the ER with a locked jaw, stiff neck and back and vertigo. 9. The hubby tore the suspension out of one of our cars hitting a pothole that I’m telling you appeared out of nowhere. 10. I got a parking ticket and had to replace my air conditioner on the same day! 11. I got pulled over by John Wayne, Jr. for speeding while being stuck in a traffic jam and I really think I have an ulcer. 12. A friend, who I thought I had a good relationship with for several years, presented me with a dollar store tiara (you know how I like those!) for being the Queen of All Rock Chicks and then wanted to take it back because ONCE I didn’t get something done for him in my normal three-minute time frame. wtf? I know, I should be forgiving, people have bad days, say things they may not mean..blah,blah.blah. His words were so totally out of line, though, I can’t even carry on a conversation with him since that happened. 13. I haven’t been able to win a poker game online since I bought that ring. Totally 100% serious. I’m confident saying that I am a pretty darn good Texas Hold ‘Em player. I also consider myself to be a relatively conservative card player, too. I don’t chase cards and if something is making me uneasy, I have no problem folding anything (well, ok, except a royal flush) at any time. I can’t even win a hand now. Talk about a total bad luck streak! There’s a few additional odd events, but I'll have to tell you once more. When I can get off the floor. Bruce! Groos? Claddagh rings. Whatever. What do you think? Can a ring really bRING bad luck?