What's the weirdest fact about you?

[lucimay]

i find playing cards on the sidewalk.

that's not the weird part, tho it's kinda odd because i've never met anyone else who finds them, much less with the regularity i experience.

the weird part is, i think they are messages to me. from my dead grandmother. (she's awesome like that)

My nickname, from the age of 7 until at some point though my teenaged years, was Ace.
Enough people used it, that My High school jacket had it on the sleve, and my birthday cakes always said 'Happy Birthday Ace' on them.

whoa. yer a message from my gram??? whoa.

[lorin]

i find playing cards on the sidewalk.

that's not the weird part, tho it's kinda odd because i've never met anyone else who finds them, much less with the regularity i experience.

the weird part is, i think they are messages to me. from my dead grandmother. (she's awesome like that)

Great fodder for a story.

[sgt.null]

lucimay - have you kept them all?

[mrsnull]

I am married to Sgt.Null!!!!!!!! :):)

[stonemaybe]

I am married to Sgt.Null!!!!!!!! :):)

That's not weird, that's just plain f***ed up!

[Vraith]

I am married to Sgt.Null!!!!!!!! :):)

That's not weird, that's just plain f***ed up!

Not quite as f'd up as if she called herself mrsnull and wasn't married to him.

[lucimay]

lucimay - have you kept them all?

yes, i've kept them all.

[sgt.null]

I am married to Sgt.Null!!!!!!!! :):)

seems normal to me...

stone -

luci - have you mounted them at all or have them in a box. not to pry, but i do find it awesome that you have them.

[deer of the dawn]

i find playing cards on the sidewalk.

that's not the weird part, tho it's kinda odd because i've never met anyone else who finds them, much less with the regularity i experience.

the weird part is, i think they are messages to me. from my dead grandmother. (she's awesome like that)

My nickname, from the age of 7 until at some point though my teenaged years, was Ace.
Enough people used it, that My High school jacket had it on the sleve, and my birthday cakes always said 'Happy Birthday Ace' on them.

whoa. yer a message from my gram??? whoa.

That is pretty cool. I find beads. Really cool ones, in very strange places. I have a necklace I made from found beads years ago. It's quite something.

[deer of the dawn]

i find playing cards on the sidewalk.

that's not the weird part, tho it's kinda odd because i've never met anyone else who finds them, much less with the regularity i experience.

the weird part is, i think they are messages to me. from my dead grandmother. (she's awesome like that)

Great fodder for a story.

Like, when you find the last in the deck of 52, you...

• die, or
  Meet the love of your life as you straighten up (his name is Jack); or
  you find the solution to the great problem of your life, or
  the complete deck is magical and you win every game, or...

[sgt.null]

what about number systems not involving 52?

[deer of the dawn]

But that's the number of cards in a deck. Where are you going with this? *intrigued*

[Savor Dam]

Time to play the pedant card, so to speak...

Yes, the "standard" card deck is 52, apart from jokers...but there are other decks for both game-play and for cartomancy.

• A pinochle deck is 48 cards; two copies of the A, K, Q, J, 10 & 9 from each of the four suits.
  
  A euchre deck is 24 cards; the A, K, Q, J, 10 & 9 from each of the four suits. Essentially, a euchre deck is half a pinochle deck.
  
  A piquet deck is 32 cards; the A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8 & 7 from each of the four suits.
  
  A tarot deck is 78 cards; the 21 cards of the Major Arcana, 56 cards of the Minor Arcana (consisting of the usual 52 cards of the "standard" deck, but adding another court card -- the Cavalier -- to each suit), plus the Fool.

[aliantha]

A tarot deck is 78 cards; the 21 cards of the Major Arcana, 56 cards of the Minor Arcana (consisting of the usual 52 cards of the "standard" deck, but adding another court card -- the Knight -- to each suit), plus the Fool.

Fixed it for ya. In a Waite/Rider-type deck, the court cards are King, Queen, Knight and Page.

Also, The Fool is usually considered part of the Major Arcana. It's number 0.

There are a few other divinatory decks out there that have a different number of cards, but Tarot decks typically have 78.

[deer of the dawn]

The question, then, is whether or not Lucimay finds Tarot cards on the sidewalk. But since she says "playing cards" and most of those are 52 to a deck, I'm saying when she finds all 52 (no duplicates) something in her life reaches a catharsis or paroxysm or something. That is, if she's living in the Twilight Zone or an X-files episode...

[sgt.null]

i was going for a card set that seems normal but has more cards than normal... a 22 of clubs or a 30 of staves... a real dream set...

[lucimay]

well i'd have to get the earliest cards out of storeage (in a large box at the top of my closet) to tell you exactly the number of cards i've found but i'm pretty sure i passed 52 a long time ago, and maybe even twice. i've lived in SF since 1990 and i believe i started finding the cards not long after my grandmother's death in may of '92. actually, the whole thing started with me seeing my name (cyndi) written in the sidewalk concrete about a block from my apartment. it was a few blocks later that i found my first card.

once i'd found that card i thought it would be good to see if there were tarot equivalents so i stopped by Acorn Books which was a few blocks further on my route that day. it was (now defunct) a used bookstore so i popped in there to see if there was a book on tarot which would tell me the playing card equivalents.

i found on the shelf this book




inside the book (it was used and in mint condition) was an inscription that reads " for Barbara, on her 28th birthday, september 29th, 1975, from the
Molino House Ladies" and in the back of the book were 2 photo copies of two tarot cards, The Emperor and The Empress.

whenever i find a card i look it up in the book and then leave the card in that spot in the book. eventually the book was too full to keep putting the cards in there so i found a small box and put all the cards i had up to that point in the box and stored it. next time i found a card i put it in the book, so right now, i have 45 playing cards. several of those were found at the same time, in groups, 4 at a time, 3 at a time, 7 at a time....like that. like poker hands or something. also i found one card which was not a conventional playing card. it looks like some sort of gaming card. it has a trade mark on it in tiny letters that say 1990 US Games Systems, Inc.
it's a drawing or watercolor drawing of a woman standing in water holding a candle. underneath the pic it says "What we see in the symbology of tarot derives in large measure from our own intuition and, once revealed, reflects back upon each of us to further enrich our lives." and is acredited to The encyclopedia of tarot volume 1 by stuart r kaplan.

the book has gotten pretty full again so i will, the next time i find a card (it's been over a year since i found the last one which i now carry in my wallet, well actually i carry the last 4 in my wallet - queen of diamonds, 10 of hearts, 10 of spades, and 5 of spades) anyhoo, the next time i find a card i'll probably clean out the book again.

phew. any more info ya'll need to examine this weirdness?


oh and deer, that's REALLY cool about the beads!!

[High Lord Tolkien]

Have you found a whole deck yet though? Not just 52.
See I'm so odd the first thing i thought of was that you'd die once you find the whole set.
I hope not! But that's how that shit works. Be careful.


If i find I'm about to put my socks on before my underwear I stop and put my underwear on first.
And before anyone asks, yes i could wear a sock as underwear. If it was a big sock that is.

[lucimay]

Have you found a whole deck yet though? Not just 52.
See I'm so odd the first thing i thought of was that you'd die once you find the whole set.
I hope not! But that's how that shit works. Be careful.


If i find I'm about to put my socks on before my underwear I stop and put my underwear on first.
And before anyone asks, yes i could wear a sock as underwear. If it was a big sock that is.

i don't know, i've never thought to go through the cards and see if there was a full deck or not.
and...regarding the sock....

i sooooo did not even need to think about that.

[aliantha]

US Games Systems publishes/prints a lot of Tarot decks, and Kaplan apparently founded and owns the company. I'm finding references online to four volumes of "Encyclopedia of the Tarot" written by him, but no references to a deck of cards. The four volumes have entries on all different kinds of decks. So that one's kind of weird...

I've been using a book lately that uses a kind of non-traditional divination system. Of course, right now I can't remember either the title of the book or the author's name. I'll look it up when I get home tonight.