There's been a lot of bad luck floating around lately. Just in the past couple of weeks I've had various friends who: got their bank account cleaned out by check-forging thieves; had their car windows smashed and their stuff stolen; and had their phone number left in an "erotic services" posting on Craigslist, which led to hours of phone calls before the post got removed. And of course Heather and I have been contending with our own illnesses and car breakdowns. I'm in a sort of constant cringing state, waiting for the next chunk of sky to fall.

I'm feeling better physically, and I was feeling better overall yesterday, getting some confidence back... and then on the way to pick up Heather from the train station, our car started acting up again, hesitating when I put it in drive, not shifting smoothly, etc. Now, the transmission fluid was old and overdue to be replaced, so I figured it was most likely a cheap fix (this turned out to be the case, and I got it done before work today; hurray), but last night I was convinced it was a massive transmission failure, and that the car would be a loss (because it's not worth the cost to fix something major like that), and that we'd be stuck riding buses for months until we could afford a new car. Basically I discovered that my sense of well-being was very fragile indeed, and all the things I'm worried about came welling up. My outlook was very dire.

It was kind of a bad evening.

So, basically, I'm very tense. Anyone have any bad-luck-cleansing rituals to suggest? I'm not a big believer in magic, but I am a big believer in altering perception / changing the way you interact with the world, so I'm willing to try something. If all else fails I'll try booze and meditation.