1. Triskaidekaphobia

Fail.

OR clever blogging illusion? Yesterday was the first day in my epic 2010 Blogathon with eLF (check out her status at ndawonye.wordpress.com). You may have noticed that my post did not exist. The irony is that I THOUGHT about it all day. I thought about it as I cleaned my whole apartment, as I did four loads of laundry, as I cleaned my own carpets with an awesome vacuum/carpet cleaner thingy, and planned/executed an successful mini-dinner party. I blame the party, which meant I spent so much time cleaning, cooking, and making these:



That I failed to actually DO the post. But if you think about it, it's kind of perfect--because of people's fear of the number 13 (for all of you who were avoiding looking up the definition of said blog post title) hotels often emit the 13th floor, etc. SO my post was kind of clever. And delayed. And lame excuses...

So people are freaked out by the number 13. You know who isn't scared?



I'm not either. I think it is sad, but predictable, that people are afraid of a number. Superstitions have always baffled me, mostly because of this, and also because I think there are so many ACTUAL things one might be scared of instead of worrying about if a black cat walks by a ladder that leads to a broken mirror on Friday the 13th when there is a full moon and you have a dream about a narwhal swimming in a river of tears...

Not being too familiar with the fear of 13, and obviously more than a little confused about other traditional superstitions, you might think I would dedicate this blog, and my time, to researching the roots of this fear, the historical implications, blah blah blah. But I'm not going to. INSTEAD, I'm going to tell you about another, similar, yet totally different fear that I think people should be talking about:

I give you, Ontriskaidekakainconcinnusphobia. WHOA. Let's break it down.
On-Greek for "being"
Tri-Greek for "3"
Kai-Greek for "and"
Deka-Greek for "10"
Kai-again for "and"
Inconcinnus-Latin for "awkward"

So basically: Being 13 and Awkward Phobia. Seriously.



I am well past 13, and I still shudder to remember. The growing out bangs awkwardness. The retainers. The pre-contacts. The bratty girls and stupid boys. Can't drive, no longer a cute little kid, middle school to high school transition, weird new hormones. 14 couldn't come too soon!

This fear is real ya'll, a lot more real than a number coming to kill you in the night. I feel for you, kids of 1997, and I promise you it can only go up from here.