Lost and Found

A couple of days ago, I went shopping for clothes for the first time since I bought a bunch of nursing shirts 5 months ago. Suffice it to say that I can't fit into almost any of my pregnancy stuff, and I'm sick of wearing baggy maternity wear. So, I headed off to check out a couple of stores while Jeff and Matthew had some bonding time. In the middle of that night, I realized that I had lost one of my earrings some time that day. Even though they are one of my favorite pairs of earrings, I tried not to freak out. I figured I would find it around the house the next day.

It has been my experience that if you go searching for something, you probably won't find it. Plus you'll get all hot-and-bothered which will make you feel even worse. And then the thing you're looking for just gets a big laugh out of the fact that it won at the game of hide-and-seek and you are a super-sucker. I find that it's a better strategy just to act like you don't care about the thing that you lost. Then it feels silly for hiding and will eventually give up and come back to you. Plus, I usually don't want to admit that the loss of a material possession has affected me so greatly. The fact is that all the important things are still with me (or a phone call away) and I'm still very, very lucky.

But it was a very SPECIAL earring. I had it (along with it's partner) made for my wedding as the "something old". Each earring holds a diamond that was in my grandmother Martha's wedding ring and a pearl from earrings that my mother gave me in honor of my graduation. I wore them at my wedding, and for hundreds of days after that. (Anyone who spends any time with me knows that I own about three pair of earrings and that I wear one pair for months at a time.) So, you can imagine how upset I was at the thought of losing one. And it's always worse to lose one of a set because then you have the other one sitting there, mocking you with thoughts like "Oooh, I'm scared. Don't lose me, too. Just leave me in the jewelry box. I'm safe in here."

Yesterday, on my way to a facial at the Aveda salon, I decided to swing by the two stores where I had been the day before, just in case I lost the earring while trying on clothes. (I had called earlier in the day to have them check the Lost and Found, but no joy.) I didn't see it at the first store, but I did raise some eyebrows looking under the fitting room stalls to see if I could see it. At the second store, wouldn't you know that someone was in the fitting room that I had used and that the doors were floor-to-ceiling. Darn. I waited and waited, but the sloth never came out. Finally, I asked an attendant to check the room and call me if he found it. Genius that he is, he knocked on the door, and hearing no one, opened the door. And there on the floor was my earring!

This isn't the first time that I've been blessed with Lost & Found charma. A couple of Christmases ago, I found my car keys in the sand after they had been buried by a rogue wave. Jeff called me his Christmas hero after that. I don't know why I have this special talent, but it's times like yesterday that I'm grateful that I do. When I got home, I told Jeff that finding the earring was the best thing that happened to me that day - with the luxurious facial running a close second. Then, he showed me a video that he took of Matthew while I was away and I realized that THAT was actually the best thing that happened to me yesterday. Click on the Matthew gets dizzy link under funny videos and you'll see why.