No, I did not wear purple oval glasses to avoid being backstabbed by my coworkers during the Year of the Monkey — but it didn’t happen anyway. That was the only fashion advice fortune teller Cheng Ya-yun (鄭雅勻) gave me last year, but she also analyzed my Chinese name to surprising accuracy and threw in a few life tips.
Just from my character strokes, she deduced that I learn easily but get bored quickly — hence my drastic career turns. I also meet people easily but have trouble maintaining a relationship. I needed to strive for some stability, or risk ending up with nothing, she said.
I quickly forgot her words and went on with my life, but this year has been considerably stabler than the past. Of course, part of it is getting old, but she also correctly predicted the months where extra effort was needed.
One thing didn’t turn out as expected: Cheng said I should not work in an office, and I would have agreed back then. But after almost two years of working from home and failing miserably at time management, I gladly re-embraced office life this month.
She told me to watch my stomach — and I came down with my annual bout of gastroenteritis two weeks later. Boo.
I also received predictions from the venerable Wisdom Tsai (蔡上機). I seemed to have followed his advice anyway: don’t get married, don’t cut corners or do anything illegal, be financially conservative … pretty obvious stuff.
A few interesting bits: Roosters born in my year should avoid financial disputes and visiting war zones or risk getting killed (I was really looking forward to that Syria trip). And at work, they will receive pressure from dogs — which happens to be my boss’s sign.
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