A broom and the salt bottle

So we finally moved this weekend! How is it that we still have so much crap???
The move is really what inspired this blog story. I've been with Monica for some years now and during those years, we have had MANY moves, so I still don't now how Monica's superstitious "Colombian" beliefs still amuse me! According to Monica's family, when one moves, they leave behind the old broom and the bottle of salt. The reason is because you leave the bad luck from the old home (symbolized by the broom and salt bottle) and you buy new ones representing the good luck that will come in the new home. The funny part is that I can probably write a book regarding Monica and her family's superstitions (spiders, flies, pearls, dolls, glass breaking, the list goes on and on, but those other stories will be for future blogs). For now let's focus on the broom and the salt. It was our first night in the new place, monIca and I decided to grill out in celebration for a hard day's work. She was in charge of the sides and I was in charge of the meat. She was making Mac and cheese...when I hear a yell, I immediately think a bug or a frog but as I walk in to the kitchen I see her holding the pepper grinder. Why is there salt in here? she asked. Her concern was not that she just put in a whole lot of salt into her Mac and cheese dish, her concern was why was there salt in the pepper grinder! "Why did you bring old salt?" she said with the tears beginning to come, "why did you try to trick me?" she asked. Trick her? I was confused at this point. I really had no idea what she was talking about, I truly was innocent! When I probed a bit more in hopes to understand her but not upset her any more, she asked why I had placed some of the old salt in the pepper grinder prior to moving to the new house. She thought I had done this because we would not have made it to the store to buy a new salt bottle until probably later that weekend, so she figured I put in old salt to get us through and stored it in the peeper grinder so she wouldnt know! What really had happened was that I used some Of the whole sea salt that had not yet been opened from a jar in the seasoning set that was given to us as a wedding gift. Since the salt was whole, I needed to grind it somehow so I emptied the pepper and put the whole salt, which was new in the grinder. Boy, this new and old thing is starting to confuse me even as I write)
You can't even imagine how relieved she was to hear that we had no "old salt in the new house"! I still do not understand the whole old vs new salt thing, especially since technically we have actually moved that seasoning set that was given to us as a wedding gift (and which includes the bottle of hard sea salt)from Augusta to Albany and now from the house to the new apartment in Albany. Monica says that the reason this bottle was allowed to move with us is because it wasn't previously opened.....hum??????? Anyways, all I can say is that with every move so far, our lives have become better and I will leave it at that.

Moral of the story: Leave the salt when you move....who knows, my wife might be on to something