my year of bad luck

So it turns out that I'm in the middle of a two year run of "bad luck", according to Japanese lore.

It's to do with my age, or the year I was born in a fixed cycle, or some combination of those. Apparently, 2011 is a bad luck year, and 2012 will, for me, be a really bad luck year. By coincidence, the same is true for Mari. The difference being that when she went to Japan, my darling (PR) wife went to a shrine and performed a ritual to have the bad luck removed.

She only told me about this last night. We're plenty of km from any Japanese shrines.

But I look at it differently. It was only after I left that Japan's luck turned really sour. It's Japan that's going to have to build a shrine to me to lift their bad luck. There. See what I did there, Japan? Your hocus pocus mind tricks have no effect on me.

Although I have to admit, this year has had its share of challenges. Some were sharp, painful, and physical, while some long, grueling mental affairs that spanned months. Others were trivial, but high frequency. One of them was ghastly and fatal, and one was infuriating, but most were harmless and even kinda funny.

And on the whole, it's been a year of accomplishment and exploration and friendship and a real foundation year, as well. We're happy, we're healthy, and we're together.

If this is bad luck, I'll take more of the same.