I have a brief story that has some bearing on the subject of the chinese zodiac.

I've only lied about my age once in my life.  I had been dating an extraordinary woman
for several weeks when the subject of my age came up.  I panicked.  There was a
noticeable disparity in our ages and I was worried that my age would become an issue,
that it would define her opinion of me.  And I wanted her to see me for who I was, not
some fairly meaningless number that a calender had bestowed on me.

So, I lied.  As asinine as it sounds I told her I was a year younger than I actually was.  I
hoped that shaving off a year would allow her to get to know me without my age
overshadowing everything.

It's ironic.  As much as I worried about it, in the end it wasn't my age that drove her
away.  It was her getting to know me that did that.

What does any of this have to do with the Chinese zodiac? Well, my then girlfriend
seemed to place some faith in the notion of astrological fate and romantic compatibility.
 Pushing out my birthday by a year changed my zodiac sign from a snake to a horse.  
Turns out that it was the snake sign that was most compatible with her sign.  Go figure.

Though she didn't know it, she was spending her time with a snake, even if he was a
bit of a snake in the grass.