The Curse of Baja

Meredith: My college campus has a magic statue. It’s a longstanding tradition for students to rub its nose for good luck. My freshman roommate really believed in the statue's power and insisted on visiting it to rub its nose before every exam. Studying might have been a better idea, she flunked out her sophomore year. The fact is, we all have little superstitious things we do. If it’s not believing in magic statues, it’s avoiding sidewalk cracks or always putting our left shoe on first. Knock on wood. Step on a crack, break your mothers back. The last thing we want to do is offend the gods.
Greys Anatomy

I should start by saying, yes I am superstitious. I believe in Karma. I wish on stars. I believe that the energy changes during the full moon. I don’t like to eat meat because I feel that everything has energy and once you kill something and eat it, that negative energy transfers to you. I stay away from black cats. I throw pennies into every fountain I come across. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I believe in curses. And more importantly that I found my own little curse yesterday down in Baja. But let me start at the beginning…

There is this tiny one room wooden church in Puerto Nuevo that has always fascinated me. So yesterday while passing through I decided to light a candle. Even though my faith lies more in Buddhism, my Old Catholic ways still creep in every now and then. As I went to the alter I noticed that there weren’t any matches or sticks to light the candle. I should have taken that as a sign to not light it!!! Instead I followed a friend’s advice and lit a piece of paper on fire and tried to light it that way. Now hers lit perfectly but when I came to do mine the entire paper went up in flames, I dropped it into the candle and proceeded to set the entire candle aflame! It would be bad enough that I tried to burn down a little wooden church but while this was going on I flipped out and said a few words you shouldn’t say in church- fuck and shit being among them!

And the curse began… From there we managed to get lost on the way back through Tijuana. And let me tell you there is nothing like an hour-long detour through the slums of Mexico with no idea where you are, how you got there, or how to get back to the border! By the time we finally found our way back I needed a nice cold margarita and to be in the US. But of course due to some forgotten produce (Those damn two lemons!) we got stopped at the border and had to go to the secondary inspection! While they were emptying out the car and looking for other hidden produce, my friend decided that the best way to get us out of there would be to pimp me! And no I didn’t agree to this. Shock of all shocks it worked- but he actually said: “No I don’t want her number but you guys can go now”, with a smirk on his face. At this point a red faced Hardt put her head down in shame and just prayed to be at home in her nice warm bed.

So today I’ll be searching for four leaf clovers and forgotten pennies on the ground and try and switch up my luck a little!!! After all, how long can the curse of Baja last…