Bad Omens

[Jellicent]

So, last night I got out of work pretty late. After parking my car, I looked at the clock and noticed it was midnight. That'd give me exactly 2 hours to get changed, have dinner, pre-game quickly, and maybe hit a bar or two. I realized it would probably just be a waste of time at that point, but I figured "what's the worst that could happen?"

As I stepped out of my car, I noticed the ground felt kinda squishy. Looking down, I saw that I was standing on the rotting corpse of a black cat. At midnight. I'm not into omens and shit, but when you step on a dead black cat at midnight while wondering "what's the worst that could happen," you opt for a night in.

Today at work, I told the one really superstitious Mexican cook what happened to see how he'd react. He responded "no bueno, my friend. El gato negro is bad, bad news." He kinda backed away from me then, so I went back to working.

I noticed a light bulb was out, so I unscrewed it and grabbed a replacement. As I was putting the new one in, it lit up for a flash and the glass shattered. When the cook saw, he gasped and said "el gato, el gato!" I laughed it off and continued setting up. (I also got to take the broken-off metal part out with a potato, which was weirdly fulfilling...)

In the three and a half years I've worked there, I have never had a worse night. There was barely a soul in the restaurant, and I spent the last 2 hours of my shift tableless, doing cryptograms and chain smoking. Of course the other server's last table lingered for over an hour after closing, so I couldn't even cut my losses and get out early.

Driving back, I noticed the moon looked pretty big. When I got home, my upstairs light was off, which is weird and a tad unsettling, cuz I'm usually pretty OCD about leaving the lights on for when I get home at night. I Googled the full moon dates for Philadelphia: Nov 17.

So I stepped on a dead black cat at midnight under a full moon.

I realize it's just a bizarre series of coincidences that my mind strung together, probably cuz I was bored as fuck at work, but it's still pretty weird. I kinda wanna hit the bars and have a fun time out of spite now, or see what else the night has in store for me~

Anyway, for an actual topic of conversation, are any of you superstitious? Have you ever had any run-ins with "bad omens" and the like? If so, how did they pan out?

 

[TheFourthChaser]

I went through a case of literal bad shit a few weeks ago. It started when I walked into the bathroom and, as I did, a razor fell into a toilet that someone had forgotten to flush. I then underestimated how much piss was left in my system. Pretty lame day followed.

I feel like I've grown more superstitious lately, Pokemon plays a role in this because of how hax paranoid I've become, and realized that my family is as well. My uncles have a "niners hum" they do to try and prevent fuck ups, it's existed for at least 3 decades. At the last VGC I went to I accidentally started a ritual where I would drink a LOT of soda, take a piss, and then play every round and I felt that if I didn't do it I would get haxed. The worst part is I didn't get haxed while doing it so I'm afraid part of me will want to repeat it again sometime in the future. It doesn't help that I had gone over non-contingent reinforcement in my Psychology class at around the same time as the ritual so it really sticks out in my mind.

It's pretty annoying to objectively think that something is complete crap and then have another part of your mind go "WAIT WHAT IF ITS REAL!??!?!?!".

 

[Ace Emerald]

The other week, I was selecting a drier for laundry and the first open one I saw was 13. I like to think I'm logical and rational. But when it comes down to it, something in me believes in superstition because I flinched when I saw 13. The rational part of me, then determined to prove I'm not superstitious, then decides to use the drier anyways. I put my clothes in for the normal 2 cycles, but when I come back down my clothes are warm, but still wet. I go for another cycle, and the clothes really felt colder and just as wet. At this point it's about 1 AM on a school night, so I cover every surface in my dorm with damp clothes to air dry them. Super coincidence time: I'm doing laundry tonight. I view this thread, decide to post my drier story, but first run downstairs to switch to my drier. The only one open was 13. I experienced 2 problems I had never encountered before paying. We'll see how this goes.

Edit: clothes warm and mostly dry. My initial troubles paying actually resulted in me getting a free $0.50 cycle. Victory for rationality.

 

[VKCA]

(I also got to take the broken-off metal part out with a potato, which was weirdly fulfilling...)

fucking damn that's really smart

 

[moonbound]

I drove to the ACT at a constant 36 mph. Spot 36 was taken so I parked in 136. It worked.

 

[jumpluff]

Ugh, this made me sad because of the cat. Sorry your night was shitty, by the way. :(

In a way I think I am actually superstitious... maybe not wholeheartedly, and I definitely don't actually believe in traditional omens (black cats, Friday the 13th, walking under a ladder, etc.), but I have obsessive compulsive disorder, and I think that's a type of superstition in itself, though it depends on your rituals and anxieties. OCD is irrational and it often causes someone to believe that they must do x (the corollary being that bad thing y will happen if they don't) when x and y may not be causally linked, or action x, while related to consequence y, isn't the only factor.

Sometimes with OCD it's ostensibly rational stuff, like exercising stringent hygiene... however, the hygienic rituals become excessive, eventually more of a 'ward out the demons' thing than actually useful, and often not even grounded in reality. Which sucks because most people with OCD know it's irrational but can't help their intrusive and obsessive thoughts and impulses.

Alternatively, the shit is just straight up obviously superstitious. Another personal example that I'm doing literally as I type this is my need to constantly be symmetrical. Anything I do with my hands has to be replicated by the other hand, if I brush my skin by accident I have to do it exactly the same with my other hand, if I knock my fingernail against a key I have to do it with the contralateral finger... it's driving me crazy now I'm thinking about it. Why do I do it? Because if I don't, I get tremendous anxiety. Yet I intellectually know nothing bad is going to happen because I didn't put my left hand on my left knee for three seconds after putting my right hand on my right knee for three seconds. Doesn't stop the immense paranoia.

The other thing is that I have a constant, acute tendency to look for patterns in my life, especially ones that don't make sense or can be explained away by selective memory. I often have to remind myself of the logical or statistical explanations for stuff because I can get swept up in it.

My mother thinks (on some level) our house is haunted because six months after we moved in, my grandmother was diagnosed w/ cancer, four months after that my first brain tumour, a year and a half after that and I got diagnosed with epilepsy and a second brain tumour. I think she knows better but she's very spiritual in a new ageish way and believes we were born under unlucky stars

 

[Jellicent]

Well, after a few enjoyable drinks at a dive that was a 20 minute walk away, I found the clear skies had suddenly turned torrential. Like, that kind of downpour where those random trees that they plant in the middle of sidewalks are waving at you while the streets themselves have small waves of their own going on. Despite clinging beneath overhangs, I got utterly drenched and lost a few good cigs...

All said, nothing too terrible, though. The weather turned unfortunate, but that's certainly not very threatening and I did have fun. Definitely beats getting stabbed or robbed or arrested or whatever, so come at me, omens.

I never really put together the connection between superstition and OCD, and I suppose to that extent, general phobias as well. They're all irrational, and you can even be at full terms with how illogical they are in your mind, but damn if they don't fuck with you anyway...

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

 

[Jukain]

damn i get that symmetry thing too, it's fucking annoying :(

omens in general i really don't find existent. sometimes i can have excessive paranoia, but nothing weird ever really happens despite whatever unfounded fears.

 

[Cresselia~~]

Well... think of the good side, a full moon is supposed to be lucky in Chinese culture.
And knowing that even stepping on poop could be lucky in some cultures (I think it's French?), I just think, these luck related things aren't real.

You only think you are in bad luck when you are in the mood for it.
It's because it upset you in the first place, then even small troubles afterwards seemed to be bigger than they should be.

 

[jumpluff]

I never really put together the connection between superstition and OCD, and I suppose to that extent, general phobias as well. They're all irrational, and you can even be at full terms with how illogical they are in your mind, but damn if they don't fuck with you anyway...

Some people call it magical thinking (Wikipedia says: 'the identification of causal relationships between actions and events where scientific consensus says that there are none', 'fear of performing certain acts or having certain thoughts because of an assumed correlation between doing so and threatening calamities'). I find it to be a pretty accurate summary of the experience of having OCD (and, yeah, to an extent, other irrational fears).

Let's hope the curse was broken!!

 

[His Eminence Lord Poppington II]

my superstition is religion

 

[Lasagne]

I don't actually have proper OCD, but I do what jumpluff said. Everything has to be symmetrical. Its not such a problem now, but I used to obsess over it. Every little thing had to mirror itself. I even got to the point where I was walking up and down the stairs multiple times in order to make it the same for both sides of my body. If I scratch my right ear with my left hand, I have o scratch my left ear with my right hand. Then I'd do it in the reverse order so its even. Then I'd do the whole thing in reverse again. It would build up very quickly until I force myself to stop.

yeah I was kinda fucked up as a kid

 

[verbatim]

I drove to the ACT at a constant 36 mph. Spot 36 was taken so I parked in 136. It worked.

Gets a 13

 

[moonbound]

Gets a 13

I guess that white text must be whiter than I am.

 

[Yuri]

I don't believe in traditional omens, good or bad, of any kind and I will think less of you if you do. If 13 black cats crossed my path 13 times in a crossroad under a full moon on a friday the 13th I wouldn't be fazed at all. On the contrary, I'd be like holy shit 13 cats :3!!

That said, my parents' religion is Candomblé and I grew up seeing them involved in it, making offerings and whatnot. My mother was capable of being possessed by Orishas (that is not a bad thing!) and I saw it more times I can remember. That is as much as a "proof" I have that spirits and the otherworld are for real, as in "my parents wouldn't put such an act so many times only to fool me".

I say that because one of things taught in Candomblé is that spirits may comunicate with some people via dreams to bring a message or warning, which may fall under omens. Growing up in the environment I did it is only natural that I at least take this (among others) in consideration. I'm not sensitive at all but my brother is to an extent. If he's having a recurring dream about something, we understand that something may be up.
Ironically, or paradoxally, I think dream divination like "if you dream of teeth it means death" is complete and utter bullshit.

As an aside, I also have some of the symmetry/balance OCD, but it only bugs me a little, I don't even go as far as calling it OCD.

 

[Lolk]

I usually wave off omens. Say I walk under a ladder, I immediately assume that something unlucky is going to happen to me today. This means I am approaching my day with expectations of mishap. This negative attitude specifically finds all the bad things that happened to day and over exaggerates any dumb thing that can be interpreted as bad luck.

The same thing happens with good luck. Whenever I find a four-leaf clover, I expect good things to happen. This sets my mind in a positive mode and I notice and appreciate all of the good things that happened that day. The events of that day could have been the complete same, but I could have crossed a black cat's path and focused on all the little things that made my day unfortunate.

This kind of correlates with stress anxiety. Whenever I feel overloaded with work, I have to focus on the negatives of everything, making the situation much worse. I notice symptoms that I wouldn't normally notice if I was in a good mood, and my negativity over exaggerates them. Like omens, it's truly just the attitude you enter a situation with that determines what the outcome is.

 

[Ampharos]

I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan, but I refuse to watch any more of their games due to one disastrous season in which they lost every game I watched and won every game I didn't.

 

[KM]

I guess the only real "omen" I have that isn't just my OCD (which manifests itself in the form of obsessively checking locks, windows, burners, blinds, and to a lesser extent hygeine, pretty much all usual stuff) is not to walk under a swarm of seagulls.

Because they poop on you.

That probably isn't an omen.

However, it does tie in to a similar, much more weird thing that's happened to me many, many times. I get sort of amplified dejavu, but instead of it happening after the fact, as in "wow i feel like i've seen this/heard this before", it's more of "I've heard the start of this conversation in my head and I can exactly predict what's going to happen next". In rare cases, I've actually said the words that other people are saying while they're saying them, which usually creeps them out. Just a bit. The most interesting one I can remember is sometime around last year, when suddenly I knew for no apparent reason that my friend was about to scream "I birthed you". That's practically not even a sentence. It didn't even make sense in context at the time, but I was absolutely sure of what she was going to say and I mouthed it out as she was saying it.

But back to the seagull thing. Earlier this year (I think it was in september or so), all of I sudden I pictured a seagull shitting on me in the exact spot I stood if I kept walking. So, I randomly stopped in the middle of the walkway thing, and I shit you not (hehe), a seagull poop landed about six inches in front of my feet, in the exact location I probably would have been.

On a less future-telly note and a more weird coincidence thing, our school is one of the most susceptible places for seagull poop. At lunch, there's always a danger of being shit on, and it had been a while since anyone I knew had been. So, I said something about it one day at lunch. Sometime within the next few weeks, one of us got seagull pooped on in one way or another four days in a row. Not one time since.

Call it luck, call it a sixth sense, call it future-telling, call it an omen, I don't really care. It's something I can't really control, and it's certainly quite fun when it happens ^^.

 

[noobcubed]

I remember last year one Saturday I was due to attend a one-day training course in London, which is about an hour on the train from where I live. I had to set off quite early in the morning, but I overslept and ended up missing my train and arriving late. I rang ahead, explaining that my bike had developed a puncture on the way to the station and that was the reason I had missed the train, rather than my own laziness. I got there in the end, no harm done, but...

About forty-eight hours later, on the Monday, I had a university project due in at the department, and I was cutting it really fine. I was cycling to the department with minutes to spare to the deadline (and the university is VERY strict about deadlines), when, wouldn't you know it, my bike DOES develop a puncture. I flung the bike rather dramatically into a hedge and ran like my life depended on it.

I managed to hand the work in with literally seconds to spare, but it could have been a lot worse. I'm not at all superstitious but this was certainly rather a large coincidence.

 

[TrueSoprano]

I don't really believe in anything supernatural, but I notice that whenever I see certain numbers, bad things happen to me. I'm not gonna type those numbers because bad things will happen to me.

 

[Shiny_Tyranitar]

I drove to the ACT at a constant 36 mph. Spot 36 was taken so I parked in 136. It worked.

For the love of God, please don't go to law school. Which would require you to take the LSAT, which is graded on a scale of 120 to 180.

 

[Fatecrashers]

Right before I did my bungee jump, a radio they had on the bridge started playing 'Highway to Hell' by ACDC. I became a little worried, having seen a few days prior one of the Final Destination movies where the protagonist sees a premonition of a massive freak traffic accident right after that very song is played. As it turns out I did not plummet to my untimely death, but that memory is still indelibly etched in my mind.

 

[Thursday]

don't know if this counts, but a couple weeks ago i had a dream that a very old, very pale man held me at gunpoint and shot me in the back. i woke up in the morning terrified because i was stuck in that small window of time wherein you're awake but the dream still presumes itself as reality. i have to walk a mile to get to main campus in both the morning and the evening, and i realized that i'd probably feel really uncomfortable about walking such a distance right after the dream; i thought about using public transportation for a while, but eventually decided to just walk to campus as usual. when i finally got done with class and finished eating dinner, i decided that i'd try to walk back to campus. i found an old man dressed in similar garments to the one in my dream, and was absolutely terrified of him until he crossed the street. then i looked around me and realized that the old man in my dream didn't shoot me in front of a fence, but in front of someone's veranda. i laughed nervously and walked the rest of the way back to my dorm.

beyond that things like black cats, walking under ladders, the number thirteen, etc. don't faze me that much. there's the momentary sense of dread, relict of learned behaviors from my family, but it fades away really quickly. i'm not really superstitious, but i was raised in a family that was (and still is) – it's something that's always fascinated me as a subject, but after a young age i stopped buying into it. however, i admit that i've experienced some nervous flutterings in my chest concerning certain bizarre happenings in my life, though i can't remember any others from the top of my head UGH

 

[_Tonks_]

When my Dog Holds his Paws over his eyes It usually means he knows it's going to Rain or Storm. He's horrified of rain, so it'd make sense. It's pretty accurate to. Any amount of rain to, even a three minute drizzle.