full moons and thirteens

Yasmin, 23, is not particularly superstitious but three coincidences - the full moon, the thirteenth day after being dumped by her boyfriend and being unable to sleep all night - made her wonder if she was about to experience a worse calamity than the one she was recovering from.

"Yesterday evening was most unusual - I went on a five-hour drive to nowhere and no, I wasn't stalking my ex-boyfriend," laughs Yasmin, "and that, in itself, might be why I couldn't sleep. Or, it might have been a warmer than usual night. Or, more likely, it might have the fact that I didn't eat or drink for five hours, came home ravenous and thirsty and stuffed myself with heavy food and coffee at a time I'd usually be going to bed!"

"But maybe it was the really the impending full moon?"

"Being wide awake at 5am on the thirteenth day of recovery from being dumped - yes, I'm counting - didn't make me feel good at all," sighs Yasmin. "I was seriously wondering what the rest of the day would hold in store for me."

"It's hardly going to be the day when I get back on track with my life - finding a new boyfriend," sighs Yasmin, "so I might as well take it easy and not tempt fate by going out, opening the front door or answering the telephone."

"The last thing I need now - after 13 days of crying - is to have another bad experience that will set me back for another 13 days!"

"I suppose I should be thankful it is not Friday the 13th of the month, too," laughs Yasmin. "Now that would be something worth really getting spooked about."

"If today is the full moon then thirteen days ago it must have been just after the new moon that my boyfriend dumped me," muses Yasmin, "so maybe I should welcome the full moon as a good sign rather than a bad one."

"And, as far as thirteens are concerned," says Yasmin, "the number has never really heralded any bad luck for me before and as such I had real reason to worry about."

"What really worried me," confesses Yasmin, "is that the last time I wasn't able to sleep at night I suffered a panic attack the next day and thought I was dying. At the time, of course, I was only on Day 4, three days away from being dumped, and was a real mess. I think I'm way past all that now. But you never know about these things, do you?"

"It was tempting to drag out the bottle and zonk myself out," says Yasmin, "but it's not a good look to be drinking at 5am is it? And besides which, I needed to drink myself silly after I was dumped. I don't need to do such a thing now. He wasn't worth it then, and he's not worth it now or ever!"

"Finally, after taking another hot shower, some more warm milk and plugging my ears so that I wouldn't hear early morning noises I fell asleep eventually, and woke up about noon," says Yasmin. "That was half of the thirteenth day of the full moon gone without bad luck - now I must wait to see what the other half of the day has in store for me!"

"And I thought I wasn't superstitious?"