Recently, on Twitter, I asked my followers to provide me with some ideas to blog about. This was the first response, and I was pretty stoked by the idea. (Got other things I should write about? Comment in this post.)
@fontosaurus Tell us about your superstitions and/or favourite rituals, and how they came to be.
— Katy (@KatyChancey) February 10, 2015
I don’t ascribe meaning to a large number of superstitious things. To know me is to know I’m an atheist, mostly fuelled by rationality (but also an overwhelming need to mock people’s imaginary friends) and have a low tolerance for superstitious nonsense. That said, I do have my own little rituals and tics that I find myself doing over and over again for no apparent reason other than that they satisfy my need for structure in my life.
Race Day Breakfast
On race day, I always have the exact same breakfast starter. Toasted english muffin with peanut butter, big glass of OJ, and my multivitamin. I always supplement it with additional food while en route to the race, usually some protein and more carbs, but I always always start with the muffin/OJ/multivitamin combo. Why? I don’t know for certain. I know that about the time I started this, I had a streak of pretty decent finishes, and it just sort of became tradition after that.
Hard Drive Name
I always name the HD on my Macs “Lucky” — I cannot, for the life of me, tell you why I do this, but the habit goes back to college when I owned my first Mac (a Powerbook 520c). Pretty weird that I feel an overwhelming compulsion to do this. Hoping it prevents my hard drives from shitting the bed? Something.
Retired Rituals
Check my gear three times — learned this while stationed at Fort Bragg, and it carried over into my rock climbing. Since I don’t climb anymore (which is sad, sad for me), and I’m pretty religious about keeping my bikes in working order, this has been retired.