Hmm.... a blue moon tonight.

Tonight is a full moon. In fact, it is a blue moon. A rare event. Rare like PMP!

2009 had, then, 13 full moons, and was therefore a "Year of the Moon." In some traditions a Year of the Moon means bad luck, and the year is supposedly fraught with personal catastrophes. Not sure why that would be, I like full moons. 2009 did suck, though.

[UPDATE: I hated the concept of a blue moon being bad luck so I did some research. Looking forward is the way to go--superstition has it that:

...the occurrence of a blue moon is the perfect time to plant the seeds of long-term goals that will blossom in the sun of a future day.... Any goals planned beneath the glow of the second full moon of the month are thought to have the benefit of a kind of psychic tidal pull of the satellite. Unfortunately, the magic of the blue moon is unpredictably intense. To put in motion your goals for the future underneath the moon at the end of the month is the same thing as making a wish granted by a genie. If you don't use very careful and precise language, the result may very well be a sweet cookie full of arsenic. The potency of the magic of the blue moon is said to be concentrated and passionate; you may get what you wish for but in a way not foreseen if you allow loopholes to dangle beneath the bright reflection of the sun's light against the cold darkness of the lunar surface.

So while 2009 may have sucked wind, tonight is the night to plan for the future! And the internet is never, ever wrong.]

Anyhow, back to other randomness related to a blue moon. Let me throw some things out there to pull all of this together, somehow. Humans tend to look for connections where they don't exist, which is why we (okay, me) love conspiracy theories. This isn't a conspiracy theory, just some interesting synchronicity (causally unrelated events occurring together in a meaningful manner--Jung, not Sting):

• My surgery--January 8, Elvis's birthday (see an earlier post about Elvis here);
  

• A blue moon tonight, on New Year's Eve, ending 2009 and beginning 2010;
  

• Travel--I'm flying into Memphis this Saturday, and swinging by Tupelo on my way to Houston (more on that journey over next several days);
  

• And of course, I have this whole Joe Versus the Volcano thing going on in my mind these days, as evidenced by my luggage post. (Abdominal cloud. Well, at least my brother will get that one.)

So, with all that in mind, let go and enjoy my absolute favorite Elvis song, one that was, coincidentally, featured in Joe Versus the Volcano: