What totems, rituals, or superstitions do you have?

I LOVE this question!! One oddity immediately came to mind, and then a second, and then more. So here I go:

1. Ritual. When pumping gas I have to stop on the zeros - as in $29.00 or $32.00. So I'll say something like, "If I stop on the zeros then...(fill in the blank, for example, "The next lottery ticket I buy will be a winner")." It's a little bargaining thing I do, and it's hard. I can't slow down to make it happen, I just start counting when I get to .50 and then try to hit the timing right. And once I stop I can't start again, it's either under, over, or right on. And rarely right on. But when it is I get happy. It's so stupid.

2. Superstition. I won't pick up a penny unless it's heads up. A tails up penny is bad luck, so I won't risk it.

3. Ritual. I always wish on the first star I see in the sky, and I always recite, "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, wish I may, wish I might have the wish I wish tonight."

4. Superstition. I once read that you shouldn't say "I wish..." when wishing on a star because then what you're really wishing for is a wish (so, for example, if you say, "I wish I'd win the lottery" then your wish will come true, you will continue to wish to win the lottery). Instead you should say, "I will win the lottery." So when I make my wishes on stars I don't say, "I wish..." I just say what it is I'd like to come true.

5. Superstition/Ritual. My two best friends and I get our tarrot cards read at a place called the Tremont Tea Room. We do it about once a year and it's so much fun. So much of what we've been told has come true. And just in case you're a non-believer: we went our junior year of college for the first time. I had my tea leaves read. The person asked me who Joe was. I was like, what? She showed me how the tea leaves spelled out Joe inside the cup, and I swear they really did. He was my boyfriend. She also told me that she saw me writing beside a very large lake. There was a lake on my college campus but I'd never written beside it. I forgot about it. Until 11 years later when I was writing my first book, sitting in my condo overlooking Lake Michigan. And I once had past life regression done in Chicago. The woman told me that in a former life I lived in Greenland and my child drowned and it's made me stay away from water. Well, I don't like the water, never go in the ocean (pretty much because it's cold, but also because I wonder what's crawling around my toes). There was no way this woman could have known that, for all she knew I was a lifeguard who used to be on a swimteam. I could go on and on and on. It's so much fun.

I think that's it! If I think of more, I'll post later.