It appears there are more than a few people in my office who regularly visit a psychic. I knew there were people out there who did this, but I've never been exposed to them. It's weird. Apparently there's some sort of psychic convention every weekend at a Holiday Inn here somewhere (or some other inconspicuous place) that they go to, sometimes in groups. It makes my skin crawl a little bit.
I've only visited a 'psychic' once. I put that in quotes because I'm pretty sure she was in fact a scam artist. I was in Louisiana with Q visiting his mom's family, and a bunch of the girls went to have their tea leaves read. It was myself, my mother in law, her mother, her two sisters, and her niece. It sounded interesting. It actually sounded very alluring, reading tea leaves. Much more interesting and exotic than palms.
We filed into a car and drove to her house. Yes, the psychic's house. That immediately scraped off some of the exoticism. We sat around a big old table, all of us, and she poured us each a cup of tea. It looked like sludge, and tasted like what I thought sludge might taste like. That or raw sewage. What was left at the bottom wasn't tea leaves, it was grinds. Like coffee grinds. That swept away a large chunk of the excitement. It was gross.
One by one she began telling us what the 'leaves' said about us and our futures. In front of everyone, which gouged away even more of the mysticism. Finally came my turn. She started off by analyzing my character. Or not analyzing, exactly, but chopping it to bits. If you were to learn about me through this 'psychic' you'd think I was a selfish, maladjusted, rude bitch. Seriously. It was so very odd. It actually made me feel bad about myself, as she must have played on my insecurities. It was surreal.
Then, as if to cement her place as a fraud, she told me I was pregnant. In front of Q's family. And we weren't married yet. They're not exactly a conservative family (they do get their tea leaves read after all), but that still qualifies as awkward. I don't remember their reaction, but I remember mine. I told her that couldn't be true. I couldn't help myself. It was as if a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. If she was so dumb as to assert something like that, surely the rest of what she had said was bullshit. I'd think a psychic would know better than to tell someone she was pregnant. That could so very easily be proven wrong. It's got to be in their rulebook, right? Duh. That effectively removed any trace of excitement left in my body.
His family was very nice about the whole thing. They thought she was oddly mean to me, and were totally on my side. I'm sure they wondered about the whole pregnancy thing. It was so very out there.
Maybe she sensed that I wasn't a believer. It's not that I don't think there are people out there who can communicate with the dead, or who see the future, or who see ghosts. I'm actually very interested in the paranormal. But this woman was a fraud. I knew it the minute I tasted her crappy tea; the minute I realized she was reading our spent grinds and not leaves.
She was dumb. That's all there is to it. And she turned me off of psychics altogether. I have no need to have my future told to me. I'd rather live my life without the doubts, or suspicions, that inevitably arise from this type of thing. There's enough of that going on anyway, no need for more.
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