quick like a bunny!

I forgot to say “Rabbit Rabbit” yesterday, and that means one thing. Bad luck all month. It is true. In the sixteen years that I have believed in this superstitious act, I find that it is a particularly accurate predictor for the month to come.

What is “Rabbit Rabbit?” Well, if you were born and raised in a hole in the ground, I suppose you may not be familiar with the monthly ritual, so here it is in a nutshell. On the first of every month, the first words to leave your mouth must be “Rabbit Rabbit,” followed by your getting out of bed in a funky way. If you do so, the following month is full of luck. If you fail to do so, your month will be saturated with impending doom, well not really, but it will certainly not be a month of good fortune.

I’d never really thought about Rabbit Rabbit’s accuracy until yesterday, when a friend and I were discussing my past year of particularly unlucky events. What is the common link in all these unfortunate happenings? I am almost positive that each bad luck month has been preceded with an un-rabbit rabbit first of the month. Scary, isn’t it? (Insert St. Lawrence shout out here.)

I know for a fact that I did not say “Rabbit Rabbit” on both March 1, 2009 and August 1, 2009. I know this for two reasons: one being that both were months of incredible misfortune, and the other being that I recorded my failure to “rabbit rabbit” in my diary (yes, I often keep a diary). On the days that I forget, I usually remember about half-way through my shower or commute to work, and spend the rest of my day getting angry and cursing at myself for forgetting. Woopsie!

I should have said “Rabbit Rabbit” on March 1, 2009. Why? Because if I had, I most definitely would not have broken my tailbone.

It was a beautiful March day, semi warm and not a cloud in the sky. Friends were off to snowboard, and offered to teach this well-balanced, eager novice how to shred down the mountain on a board, not on skis. Being a dancer, I figured I would be able to handle the balance aspect without a problem, but after trying to use my brother’s skateboard, I was terrified out of my mind.

Long story short, snowboarding and I didn’t get along during my first attempt. Getting up, and building up speed wasn’t so much the problem, where as steering, stopping and falling was. After a brief tutorial on the bunny hill, my friends decided it was time to conquer the mountain. I was more concerned about getting off the chairlift in one piece. Three rounds in, I had a major wipe out: a “hit your tailbone so hard your nose hurts, you feel nauseous, and a woman on the chairlift starts yelling for people to call mountain emt’s” type of wipe out. I somehow managed to get myself down the mountain, and every time I fell, an overwhelmingly aweful feeling of nausea took over my body. I was done.

I have a very small butt. Always have. Sometimes I feel like a higher being decided the padding for my butt would be better utilized elsewhere, like my rack. Thanks? At any rate, snowboarding and my little to no butt padding create the perfect storm for tailbone breakage…and a padded donut for the next several weeks.

Thanks, Rabbit Rabbit.

I also should have said “Rabbit Rabbit” on August 1, 2009. Why? Because if I had, I most certainly would not have come down with Swine Flu. (see blog entitled “Swine:1, Kristin: 0” for a more detailed encounter, that I would rather not relive again.)

If I had simply stated those two small words just 16 days earlier, I would have saved myself ten days of absolute misery, and several weeks of extended recovery. Fact? Most certainly.

Touche, Rabbit Rabbit.

Lastly, I should have said “Rabbit Rabbit” yesterday, February 1, 2010. Why? Because if I had, I most certainly would not have had to watch a best friend deploy to Iraq.

I have been putting off the deployment of First Lieutenant Houpt for the past seven years. Until yesterday, I had single-handedly prevented him from being stationed by pretending it wasn’t happening and completely avoiding the subject all together. I had miraculously helped Bill avoid a first tour of Afghanistan, ignored the possibility of him going to Germany, and rolled my eyes at the potential of him being stationed in South Korea (eek!) My plan seemed to be working flawlessly, until I forgot to say “Rabbit Rabbit” yesterday. It wasn’t more than 5 hours after I started cursing myself for yet another month of misfortune when I got the call. The call I have been dreading/avoiding/tactfully rerouting for seven years came just hours after an awful and underestimated mistake.

Yes, Bill has been waiting to deploy since mid January, and every day he has told me that deployment is inevitable, and that it is not only coming but in the very near future. True, he has been adequately prepared and we have all had ample time to send him off graciously, but his deployment had to come the day I forget to whisper “Rabbit Rabbit?”

Too creepy, Rabbit Rabbit, and not at all funny.

Here is an anticipatory “Rabbit Rabbit” to March 2010 being a month of luck!