Belief Systems

I feel like a big part of growing up is discarding, or trading up on, previous beliefs. You realize, for example, that the bag of baby teeth in your dad's nightstand drawer is related to your regular installments of tooth-cash. Or--much later if you're me--you start to understand that toilets don't just magically stay clean.

I was thinking about some of the truly inane things I used to believe earlier today, things that lingered longer than they should have. Am I the only one who thought that:

* You have a pre-determined amount of hair, coiled up in little hair-spools inside your head, and at some point, you'll run out, just like with Hollywood Hair Barbie.

* If you're so unlucky as to sneeze when your eyes are crossed, enjoy a hellish life of permanent cross-eyedom.

* Velveeta with ketchup on it is perfectly acceptable "food."

* Bloody Mary is actually in that mirror. I still believe this, honestly, at least enough not to try my luck.

* This one I'm 99.935% sure no one else has, because it involves my 6-year-old memory of a monster in a specific episode of the Ghostbusters spinoff Saturday-morning-cartoon series...but basically, don't sleep with your hands outside the covers. Don't even spend much time with them out in the air, grabbable, when you're rolling over. Just...trust me.

* There are healthy candy bars, like Pearson's Nut Rolls, that frankly you should be eating more of.

* People are interested in the content of your dreams. 

* It's only the flu if you throw up.