Birthday Curse

It all started September 1999. It was my 20th birthday and I was a sophomore in college. I was driving home to see Chara for our birthday and I got pulled over. I was going 81 in a 70 on the interstate. I was awarded a speeding ticket on my birthday. The sad thing was the cop had to write my birth date down once and the date down twice, you would have thought he would have figured it out.

The second occurrence was September 2000. It was my 21st birthday and I was a junior in college. I was driving to a friends house (who wasn't even home) and I got pulled over. I was going too fast. I was awarded a warranted speeding ticket, on my birthday. Again the cop had to write my birth date down once and the date twice, you would have thought he would have figured it out too.

The next year I only drove 2 miles on my birthday and was quite careful. It was my senior year in college and Chara and I went to a Mexican restaurant for our birthday. She didn't have a car.

On my 23 birthday I drove over 75 miles on my birthday and nothing happened. I wouldn't say I was careful, just lucky.

Then in September of 2003, my 24th birthday I drove from Missouri to Franklin and was in a car accident. The guy in front of me slammed on his brakes on the interstate. I slammed on mine and then into him. Luckily we had the same 1988 Toyota Camry with the same rubber bumpers. The cars literally bounced off each other with no damage. The guy was a foreigner. He yelled at me and then drove away rather quickly. Luckily I did not get a ticket.

I thought the curse was over. After all, it has been 4 years with relatively no curse activity. Until last Wednesday. It wasn't my actual birthday, but when it is within 7 days it's close enough.

I developed a horrible habit in Missouri. The subdivision I lived in had yield signs instead of stop signs, so I got in the habit of rolling through intersections. Over the past few weeks I have told myself on numerous occasions to stop at the stop sign at the intersection of 25th and Children's Way, but I often rolled through.

On Wednesday morning I got to the the intersection and looked to my left and saw two cops sitting on motorcycles. The one on the right reached into his pouch and put a wad of tobacco in his mouth. This really irritated me. I thought about rolling down my window and telling him what I thought about it. I thought about pulling my car over to them and telling him what I thought about it. But I didn't, I rolled on. Yes, I rolled on through the stop sign. So I look in my rear view and Mr. Chewing Tobacco pulled me over. I thought, should I say something? He came over told me I rolled through the stop sign and wanted all my paperwork and license. So as I sat there I stared at Mr. Chewing Tobacco and was really irritated. So he came back finally and hands me a "citation". He starts to walk off, and that's when it happened.

"You know", I said, "I think it's really inappropriate for you to be chewing tobacco when you working".

"Mam", he said, "it's not tobacco. It's mint leaves."

"What are mint leaves." I said with somewhat of an attitude.

"Mam, it's what people chew when they are trying to quit." he said.

"Oh, well, that is partly why I rolled through the stop sign"

"because you thought I was chewing tobacco?"

"Yes, I really feel like it is unprofessional. But I think it's great you are trying to quit." I said

He was annoyed, embarrassed, irritated, "Have a nice day, Mam." and he waled off.

Did I deserve the ticket, most assuredly. Did I regret saying something to the cop. No. Weather it was mint leaves or not, I perceived he was chewing tobacco.

So I guess the curse is not over. I wouldn't say that I was a bad driver at all, just overly aggressive at times and occasionally non-compliant. All my tickets have been warranted. I just hate that it is always around my birthday. But, such is life.