Do you remember this pair of earrings?
You might remember, then, when I lost one of them last December while doing something in the kitchen and Don and I tore the house apart trying to find it and this went on and on as I completely moved everything in the kitchen the next day, cleaning as I went, until a reader said I should check the silverware drawer (which I was sure wouldn’t work) and then I opened the drawer the next day and there was the earring nestled under the forks? You can read about it here.
I’ve had these earrings for a long time. It must be twenty years now – I suspect even longer than that. They’re my favorites as they are long and dangly but simple in design.
At the end of Saturday’s rehearsal, I walked back to the apartment and spent the evening answering comments, reading, watching tv, talking to Don on the phone – the usual. Then I prepared to take a bath, which is sort of a nightly thing for me when I’m in Hartford. After I pulled my t-shirt over my head, I reached for my earrings.
There was only one. I immediately did what you would do. I pulled up the cushions on the sofa, I looked under the sofa, the coffee table. I looked in the kitchen. I looked at the t-shirt, shaking it in case the earring was caught on it. I looked in the laundry basket. I looked in the bathroom. Nowhere to be found. Just to be sure, I did the whole thing all over again before I got in bed.
Calm down, I told myself. Maybe the Universe is telling you it’s time to let them go.
But I love them, I stubbornly said.
But, perhaps due to a lavender scented bubble bath, I remained calm. The next morning, I checked the elevator and the lobby, where there are tables that sometimes hold items that have been found in the building. Nothing.
I decided I would retrace my exact route home Saturday night when I walked to the theater on Sunday morning. Which I did. Imagine me walking slowly, staring at the cement, all the way to the theater. Of course, I found nothing, and I was thinking that even if it had been there, somebody would have picked it up.
I walked into the lobby of the building where the rehearsal rooms are. Nothing. The elevator? Nothing. The long walk down the hallway to the rehearsal space? Nothing. Thinking I’d check the green room and the bathroom after I set my bag down in the rehearsal room, I turned to walk through the doorway.
In the corner between the wall and the doorway, just inside the room – there it was.
Perfectly protected from someone stepping on it, it was tucked into that corner and the silver flashed in the light and I shouted out, “There’s my earring!” thereby shocking the stage management team and Darko, who were already in the room. I guess it decided to spend the night in the rehearsal space.
Amazing. That’s twice now. Since then, I’ve been using those plastic things that slide up the shepherd’s hook on the earring but I need smaller, snugger backs (is that the word?) The ones I’m using work perfectly with another pair I brought along, but not so well on this one.
The Universe is clearly telling me to get some backs and use them.
In the meantime, I check my ears about a thousand times a day.
My nephew went home from the hospital yesterday evening. We are very happy to know that the healing process can continue at home.
Happy Tuesday.
hooray on both accounts, especially your nephew going home from the hospital!
kathy in iowa
It’s wonderful news, that’s for sure.
Great news about your nephew, you must all be so relieved. Also good news about your earrings, you are obviously meant to be together.
So far! Fingers crossed!
I have a pair of earrings that are about 20 years old as well, and I’ve lost and found one twice. The first time, back in the mid-nineties, I lost one at a stable, and a couple of days later walked up to the tack shed, looked down in the churned up mud (people and horses had been walking around there regularly, and it had rained the previous night), and there it was, shining up at me. The next time, just a few years ago, I lost it at a soccer-field sized dog park, came back the next day, looked down somewhere in the middle of the park, and there it was. I don’t wear them as much anymore. Mostly I gaze reverently upon them where they hang on my earring screen and wonder what kind of magic they so quietly contain, and how I possibly came to be worthy of possessing them…
So glad to hear your nephew is getting better! That sounded so scary.
Amazing! They were clearly meant to be with you, Amy.
Hooray and Hooray! Lady Luck is smiling on you, girl.
Yes, indeed!
Have you tried these backs, Claudia? Ever since I started to use them, I haven’t lost an earring I was wearing (I do set them down & lose them). They fit on most hooks, and if they’re tight, just try wetting the hook to make it slippery.
This is a picture. I try to avoid Amazon; you can also get them at Myron Toback in NYC, on 45th street.
https://www.amazon.com/Shintop-100pcs-Earring-Silicone-Octagon/dp/B06XFTLY3N?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B06XFTLY3N
I’ll look into them, Cara. Thank you!
What a relief, in both cases! You could try and buy those very cheap earrings with plastic tube “behinds”. I have tossed the earrings and kept the tubes and now have several pairs in different sizes. With a good fit they really are a big help and you don’t have to fret, just enjoy your beautiful jewelry.
A good idea! Thank you, Leena!
So happy Mr 20 got to go home and is getting better. Well, these earrings are special for sure. To find it like you just did, amazing. So get those safety back things!! Moe stopped by last night and spent a good bit of time at the window trying to get seed from the bird feeder. He is a handsome Buck!!
Oh, that sweet Moe! I’m glad he came back!
Well, it’s a Good Morning to you when both nephew is better and earring is found!!
Very happy about both, especially my sweet nephew.
Glad you found your earring. Go quickly and buy those plastic stops! There’s a tween accessory store called Claire’s in all the malls here in California. They sell those plastic stops.
Glad nephew is home among family to recover.
I have earrings that I love (from my Dad) and lost one of the pair in a document memorabilia store (old scripts, magazines, anything on paper) in Los Angeles that was packing up to move. I was so shaken and definitely not calm, after my toddler managed to kick one of the earrings off my ear. How did she do that? And they were studs. After an hour of searching, through dozens of cartons and a multitude of bookcases, my older daughter found them. Whew! Never did find the back though….my Dad bought me a new back, so the earrings don’t match in the back. That’s ok, at least I have them! They are jade set in 18k gold, so I would have been devastated if I had truly lost one.
Yes, they have Claire’s here, as well.
So glad you found those precious earrings, Wendy!
Great news about your nephew! Hoping he makes a full recovery. And the earrings saga….thank goodness. You were so lucky to find the missing one. I think the Universe is definitely telling you to get those earring backs! ;)
I think so, too!
A large relief that your nephew is recovering. Such a worry for your sister and her husband.
So glad that you found your precious earring. I hate losing jewelry that has sentimental value and can’t be replaced. Michaels or a store like Claire’s at the mall may have earring backs that would fit.
Yes, I just have to find time – and I won’t have any until Sunday – to get out and buy some.
Serendipity on the earrings!!!!! Wonderful news about your nephew. You should buy a Lottery ticket! :-)
Hope you have another great day!
Thank you, Chris!
Good Morning…try a bit of eraser tip from a pencil, it is rustic, but will slip onto the hook and stay put….
Thank you, Lisa! Good idea.
Great news on TWO fronts! Your nephew of course – and the earring! We do the Dance of Joy!
I guess just about everyone has a “precious-belonging-seemingly-lost-forever” story. And most of the time they don’t seem to be about anything expensive. Just some ordinary but highly-cherished item. I once lost my keys AT HOME – long enough that I had to leave my apartment unlocked for a few nerve-wracking hours – and what I was most upset about was NOT losing the keys themselves but the little square wood key ring my Mom had brought me from one of her trips to NYC. It was just a goofy little thing but the BEST key ring ever. Perfect size to fit easily in pockets. Wood – so it never got too hot or too cold & was easily cleaned with a little Murphy’s oil soap. Finally found the keys behind a chair [I missed when carelessly tossing them]. That’s how I KNEW there were somewhere in the house – I clearly remember hearing the jingle when I dropped them]. Have a great Tuesday!
That’s how it was the first time with my earring. I heard it hit the floor, so I knew it was somewhere in the house!
I lost a ring in my aunt & uncle’s house out of state when I went back there for a wedding at age 17. At least that’s where we all had decided I’d lost the ring. They tore the room apart and never found it. Fast-forward some, oh I don’t know, 15 years later (?) and they called me to say they’d stumbled upon the ring. They had an old, old house with such ancient floors that the ring somehow got wedged in a dark groove between ‘planks’ that, first go’round, hid it, somehow (I think a dresser in the way didn’t help either). Maybe the old place had ‘settled’ (moved a little) over time and the ring just got more tucked away, but my aunt said she’d mopped that floor 500 times since then and had never dislodged it in all the ensuring years; the mop never caught on it.
I couldn’t believe my ears when they called me. The ring had meant so much to me because it was the first real piece of jewelry I’d ever owned (to this day, I still have very little jewelry; just not a jewelry-wearer); it was a grad gift, 8th grade going into high school (new school; big school); teeny-tiny ruby with two teeny-tiny diamonds (chips, basically!) and a thin gold band. From a very nice jewelry store. My parents had also been heartbroken because I guess they paid for it, on time, like a year or something. And my family never had money for extras like jewelry. So, it was meant to be; a true gift from heaven above that the ring should NOT be lost for eternity! The ring was just too meaningful to stay forever buried in that house…which, by the way, they sold a year later after having lived there for 45 years.
It’s such a little girl/baby-ring that I don’t wear it today but it’s in the safe deposit box at the bank, where I occasionally get it out and slip it on my pinkie; lots of good memories.
And I’m segue-ing, but I continue to be amazed when talking to someone from my past or finding something of my own or my parents’ that then prompts the brain to dig deep into its rusted-over archives for the memory, and then I’m so grateful! I recently found some more fabric in Mom’s things and, it took me awhile, but then I remembered the circumstances surrounding it and what she made from that yardage in the mid-60s(!!); a special occasion in a life where she had few, so it was a big sewing event in our house at the time for this fancy garment. I’m finding of the best dresses she sewed for me or her, she often kept back a square, a half yard, etc. Most she had wrapped in tissue, thankfully; the stuff in plastic bags have odor I’ve had difficulty in removing with such old cloth. But mom tended to honor fabric; it was art to her. And I agree. I love textiles!
A high school friend of mine sent me a photo yesterday of that long-ago time when we were all about age 18, one of the last times before everybody went their own way, onto college or wherever, and when we couldn’t know that it would be far too long before we’d all ever meet again; and, once more, such gratitude I’ve felt for this photo because it brought a flood of fun memories of a time when life was yet so limitless and full of possibilities with our young lives stretched before us, the canvas still blank and just waiting for its outline and color.
I had two rings stolen from my first apartment in San Diego.They weren’t worth a great deal but one had been my grandmother’s and one my great-grandmother’s. I mourn them to this day.
I have (correction, HAD) a pair of silvery danglies very similar to yours that I adored; needless to say, a couple of years ago one went missing and after reading your prior post I checked every drawer in the house. Unfortunately, it was not among the forks. I still hold out hope that one day it will turn up.
Great news about your nephew!
I hope you find it someday, Lori!
really glad, again, for your good news, claudia.
here’s some good news for me today …
just bought tickets for my sister and me to see “escape to margaritaville” in chicago on november 17! :) :)
i love a good snow day, but will hope for no snow or ice that weekend so we can make that almost-six-hour drive safely there and back home!
yippee!
kathy in iowa
Whoo hoo! So glad you’re going to get there to see it!
thanks. between job schedules, a birthday and thanksgiving during the show’s run, wanting good seats yet needing to avoid the higher prices, etc., it was kind of nerve-wracking to find tickets … but we now have them and will hoot and holler for don from the middle of the balcony and sure enjoy the show!
kathy in iowa
Don’t know whether I’ll be there then, but I suspect I will as my birthday is 4 days later and I’ll be 65 – a biggie!
What a relief to find your earring! And yes, be sure to get secure backings for those! I’ve bought a package of plastic backings from amazon. An even bigger relief about your nephew. So glad he’s out of the hospital and healing at home now.
Me too. The poor boy has been through enough. Time to be home in his own bed.
I am so happy about your nephew. I met him when he was a baby. Meredith has enough on her plate already. Good thing she is tough.
She is very tough, Kay.
Happy about your nephew going home. Glad you found the earring. It can be frustrating to lose an earring. I have trouble with the backs falling off and never finding them.
Marilyn
Thank you so much, Marilyn.
Claudia, I so relate to your earring story! My favorite earrings are so old I don’t know how long I’ve had them. They are not expensive but are my go to pair and match everything I own. I lost one once years ago on Cape Cod, retraced my steps and found it in a Marshalls dressing room a day later. I recently lost one while on vacation in Charlottesville VA if you can believe it and found it when the sun just caught the floor under the wardrobe at the resort and the silver was shining at me. I know all about walking around, head down squinting away, getting a headache and looking ridiculous, asking at restaurants, front desks etc. There was a lovely woman in Charlottesville who even sent an e mail to all employees to be on the lookout!! Breaks my heart what’s happening there now.
Anyway, long comment but one more earring tip, you can use a snippet of an elastic band to punch through the earring back in a pinch.
Thanks for the tip, Deb!
Happy to hear your nephew got to go home! such good news…and finding your earring? You are blessed twice! hugs!
Thank you, Carol!
Great news for both things, Claudia. I have to use those plastic thingies too, because I was losing too many earrings. xo Laura
Thanks so much, Laura!