You Will Meet A Handsome Dark-Haired Man...

I have to confess... I have visited fortune tellers. I do not do it often and it is only for my own amusement. I know that they are nonsense.

Most of these people have a set banter. They usually tell me that 1. I will come into some money, 2. I will meet "the man of my dreams", and 3. that I will live a long life.

I suppose that each time I receive a paycheck I am coming into some money so they are correct there. I have been married... it is a lot of work and I am not willing to put that much work into someone else any more. No dream man for me. I hope I will live as long as I am meant to. I have much I want to accomplish. But it is still fun to play the game.

I first time anyone told my fortune a friend of my sister-in-law was learning to do palm readings.. She needed practice and read us free of charge. She told me that I had been sickly in my early life, would be healthy in my middle life , and be sickly again as I got older. From some lines on the side of my hand under my little finger she said I would have three children. I would also divorce and remarry once.

Even my husband got into the act. When I was pregnant with our fist child he performed the bottle cap test. Bottle caps had cork linings then. He would stick a needle into the center of the cork and dangle it by thread above my abdomen. If the cap swung straight or in a circle it would indicate a girl. I do not remember which was which.

Somehow he and my sister-in-law decided I was having a boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, girl, boy. That is 8 children in case you were not counting. I did not intend to have 8 children. However if you take the first of each set of two you will have boy, boy, boy, girl. That is what I had. Coincidence? Hmmmm....

A friend and I had our handwriting analyzed. All I had to do was write my name on a card. The card was fed into a computer which read it and printed an analysis of my personality. If I remember correctly my friend was much more outgoing than I was. I was more responsible than she was.

A woman and man were reading Tarot cards. I waited in line and the woman read mine. I was going to go into a cycle of prosperity. Prosperity goes in 7 year cycles. I was going to meet a man somewhere down the line. He would not be rich but he would be able to care for me in a comfortable lifestyle.

One woman told me I was going to have a baby boy who would be a musical prodigy. I should encourage him in every way possible. As I always do I smiled and nodded in agreement. I knew that I was unable to have more children. It took her both the cards and my palm for this prediction.

A man told me that a man named George was "standing" next to me. I knew no one named George. But my grandfather's name was George. I was not even a gleam in my father's eye when my grandfather died. But the man went on and on about how proud George was of me and all I had accomplished.

My mother and I took a road trip. When we stopped in Salem, Massachusetts, she wanted to have a reading sone by the official witch of Salem. She was out of town and booked many months ahead. But they said we could try one of the many other witches who had shops there.

We found a very nice young man whose name was Sean. He had a telephone reading that he had to take care of first but if we cared to browse in his shop he could read us after.

Mom went first. He told her that she was not wealthy but that she had enough to make her content. He said that she was never alone because my father was right there. She would live to be a very old woman. He saw 102 years for her. He was worried about her respiratory system and gave her a stone to ease breathing problems. She kept it in a silky scarf and held it to her chest when allergies bothered her. One day she took it out to use it and it shattered in her hand. My mother was 68 when she died.

When Sean did my reading he first told me that I was nothing like my friend (Mom). She was like a calm soothing flowing river whereas I had little bolts of lightning shooting out in every direction. He told me that I would not marry again and that I would be fine with that. Then he proceeded to describe each of my children to me. He was accurate in the descriptions.

He told me that I have the ability to call people to me. I do know that all my life a person who I had not seen in a long time would pop into my head for no reason at all. Within three days I would see that person. Hmmmmm.....

I was given a bag of rune stones as a gift. There was an instruction booklet about what the stones meant. I played with them of course.

One day I was showing them to a neighbor of my friend. I knew her enough to say hello when I saw her. I looked at one stone from her and a sudden feeling grabbed me. I said, "You are seeing someone your family does not approve of."

She jerked her eyes up at me and asked how I knew that. She had been seeing a man that she worked with and her family was very upset with her because she was married to another man. It spooked me a little bit and I stopped playing with the stones.

I even had a health reading. They have you stand in front of a camera thingy and they take a picture of your aura. Your aura is the colorful glow of your body and is supposed to reveal a great deal about you. They gave me a picture of my aura. Then I got a computer printout of the things my aura revealed.  I wish I could tell you what it said but I do not remember.

I approach all of these people with skepticism I know enough to not give any reaction to what they say or do and I try very hard to stay calm and collected. I get some strange predictions and some that are close to the truth. But I chart my own course. They are simply entertainment like going to the movies or a play.