Lucky Coin

I realize my posting has been really lite this month - honestly I don't know where March went. This year just seems to be flying by. I haven't been super motivated to write lately, but I'll try to do better. Anyway, I have about 7 unfinished posts going back to November that I hope to finish up. Some of the events happened a while ago so things may seem kind of random. Then again, those that know me, know that I often seem to be a somewhat random person. Let's just say that I'm rebelling against the concept of linear time. Humor me.

Different cultures and ethnicities have a variety of traditions to ring in the New Year. It is an old Greek tradition to bake a coin in the New Year's Cake. Whoever gets the piece with the coin in it is supposed to be blessed with good luck for the entire year. My mother has carried out this tradition as long as I can remember. Since my family is rarely all together at New Year's these days, Mom prepares the New Year's meal as part of Christmas. She bakes it inside a dish called tyropita - or cheese pie. My family scarfed down the pita this year and by the time I got a piece it was over half gone. No one had gotten the coin yet and my mother was warning everyone to be careful not to bite into their pieces too hard. Someone made a joke that they could use the coin to pay for their broken tooth, and at that moment I bit down on the coin. Fortunately I did not break a tooth. As I announced that I had gotten the coin, my sister remarked that this was a good year for me to get the coin since I'm doing Ironman. Good point. Let's hope that the luck holds true.

Everyone wanted to know when I has gotten the coin last. I couldn't remember but I knew it hadn't been that many years. Mom was very concerned that I had saved the coin - it's bad luck to spend it before the year is over. I assured her that I had saved every coin I had gotten as an adult. In fact, I was pretty sure I still had them somewhere. When Brian and I returned home from Maryland, I went looking for the one coin I knew for sure I had saved - it was an antique coin from my father's collection - and found it in a box with two other coins that I vaguely remembered getting in other years. I can't say for sure if the years I got the coin were particularly good years, partly because I'm not entirely certain when I got the coins. I do know they weren't bad years - mostly because I'm an optimist and it would take a lot for me to say it was a bad year. Mom has a habit of getting new coins for this tradition so I can make some assumptions based on the dates on the coins - 1993, 1999, 2001, and 2008. Now 1993 started out fairly crappy, but since I met Brian that year I'd say it ended on a pretty good note; 1999 was the year I got my wisdom teeth removed, but it was also my first triathlon, and the year ended with our first trip to Mexico with Joey and Rachel - super fun!; 2001 saw Brian complete his PhD. and get a job at Duke, the birth of Olivia and Jordan, and another super fun trip with Joey, Rachel, and Jordan - this time to the Florida Keys. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what 2008 brings - let's hope the luck holds.

I tried to take pictures of the coins since they are pretty cool - 2 gold dollars, a silver dollar from 1885, and a 50 cent piece -but it didn't work out so well. Here are pics of all four together.

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