Embracing Thirteen

Happy Friday the 13th!

It's a big day around here. Tonight, we'll host our daughter Emily's 13th birthday party, and I'm proud to say that having it on Friday the 13th was actually MY idea. This is a big step forward for someone who avoids the number 13 like the plague. I wouldn't dream, for instance, of staying on the 13th floor of a hotel and have been known to choose another flight when the original flight number added up to 13. I almost scheduled my launch party for "Line of Scrimmage" on Sept. 13, but I dodged that bullet by moving it to the 12th. Hey, I'm Irish, what can I say?

But this year, as I face down my 13th annual meeting with AGA and as my oldest child turns 13, there's no avoiding the dreaded number. So, I figured, if I can't beat 'em, I'll join 'em. Pray for me around 7 p.m. eastern time tonight when 35 of Emily's closest friends, including—for the first time—BOYS, will invade my house.

Despite all this zen-like acceptance of the dreaded number, disturbing signs have been appearing that I might be tempting fate with this new philosophy. I went downstairs to my office today and leaning against the house right outside my window was a ladder that Cliff Claven left there last night. As if I don't have ENOUGH to worry about today! I'm spending my work day under a freaking ladder! On top of that, my "good luck" bamboo that a friend gave me when we were leaving Jacksonville almost six years ago picked THIS week to kick the bucket. If I really wanted to show you how truly crazy I am, I'd give you the mental list of things I've decided could go wrong at the Friday the 13th birthday party. Suffice to say, a call to the loony bin might be in order.

Another event happening tonight is graduation at our local high school, located conveniently three doors up the hill from our house. Imagine graduating from high school on Friday the 13th—as if life's not tough enough! Every year I watch the tent go up at the high school and calculate how many more years until Emily graduates. Five years from tonight, she'll walk the stage as part of, you guessed it, the Class of 2013.

Let's hear it for THIRTEEN!