If it turns out to be a joke at the end, I'm going to be so pissed at whoever started it

Ahhh, November. It’s one of my favorite months because it’s right in the thick of fall, the air is crisp; warm and cozy clothes are a necessity and Christmas is around the corner. It also signals the end of October, a month in which this year, much like the past four, I am happy when it ends.

It seems rather odd that I look forward to the end of a month from the moment it strikes midnight on October 1st, but I do, with good reason of course. I actually thought about writing this blog entry a week ago, but held off even starting it in fear that I would jinx everything and render it all useless.

Why the disdain for a month that brings us such joy as Thanksgiving, Halloween and beautiful landscape filled with the changing colors of the leaves? Well the answer is simple really, and those who know me know that the answer may sound kind of weird in a Jen-way, but in reality it makes complete sense. And of course, in true the future-lawyer Jen fashion, I have the evidence to back it up.

You see, the month is cursed. I can never make it through the month without some horrible disaster happening to me. Of course, in reality, it’s not disastrous in a sense of world hunger, AIDs, war or extreme poverty… but for the sake of my tendency to be overdramatic, the month of October tends to be much harder on me than any other month.

But, not this year. Oh, this glorious year here in the foothills of Italy. I have broken said curse. Or maybe it just hasn’t found me on this side of the world, because no horrible things had happened this October. I didn’t find myself so stressed out that I would begin to cry over a stupid bus driver, nor did I end up in an emergency room or have 4 midterms to study for all in the same day… the worst I faced was a scorpion, which I was actually quite calm about when I alerted Christian to come kill it. Maybe because I’m not in school nor am I stressed out that things haven’t been happening to me, but the point is, it became apparent to me the other day that I had just about made it through the month without any problem, then when the clock struck midnight on Nov. 1 (in Vancouver, lest I be fooled by time change) I gave a silent cheer and hoped that when I return to Vancouver the curse doesn’t find me in October.

Many don’t believe in curses or anything like that. And I get that, I’m probably one of the first people to discredit these things and call it a mere coincidence or bad luck. Besides, it’s not as if I live the month in fear of things, it’s just that after a few years I noticed a pattern to these things and that I have a higher occurrence of bad luck in October. For those that may be skeptical, I give you my evidence:
*October 2004: the great flood of the Cardero apartment.
*October 2005: 4 midterms in 2 days and Jen has no idea what she’s in for during
her first tests at UBC
*October 2006: The great computer crash in which Jen loses a lot of stuff that is irreplaceable (also when I acquired Marley the Macbook- not such a bad thing- and learned that backing up is vital)
*October 2007: The great face falling off incident (which technically lasted until about March ’08, but the initial losing of the top layer of my skin started in Oct.)

Without detailing everything, trust me when I say that these things were pretty crappy events in an otherwise crappy month (because in school, October is generally a bad month because midterms are due and paper topics are generally chosen and profs for some reason always want outlines so they can tell you your ideas suck after you’ve spent countless hours researching… god I don’t miss school).

So happy November everyone! Hope you’re all getting geared up for Christmas and the return of Dominique!