So THIS is what the paranoia is all about!

Today is Friday the 13th. Scared yet?

I've never given any thought to Friday the 13th as anything more than just another day. After all, my birthday is on the 13th of the month, and I've observed my fair share of Friday the 13th birthdays. These would include my 13th (fun little coincidence there), my 30th, and my 35th. Not exactly anything to write home about.

But somehow, today has been different. I'm blaming all sorts of things, but the date isn't one of them.

By now, most of the free world is acutely aware of our economic problems. I don't even want to discuss it.

The firm I work for recently merged with another firm--ironically, one that I used to work for. It's been interesting, to say the least. I'm not complaining, mind you, but there have been some changes that I can't say I'm happy with. Little blows to my morale, but there it is. I'm not in charge.

Earlier this week, I heard some very upsetting news about a family in my community. It's depressing. And when you're already a little bit down, stuff like this just adds a little more weight to the burden.

The highlight of the day so far was the fire drill. Our building managers conduct those from time to time, and for reasons I'll never fully understand, we basically ignore them. But today the word quickly spread through the hallways that this one wasn't a false alarm. I grabbed my iBond and my cell phone and started down the stairs with the rest of the sheep, only to learn that it was indeed a false alarm. We suspect it has something to do with the building maintenance guys treating a carpet that had gotten flooded yesterday. That's another blog.

So, it's just been a weird day. Blame it on the full moon if you want to, I guess, although that was four days ago. Blame it on Wall Street. Blame it on administrators who don't appreciate good staff. Blame it on Rio. Just don't blame Friday the 13th. I'm pretty sure this stuff could have happened just about any time.