I could blame my forgetfulness on my age but this has been going on for Years !!!! I own "something" , I put "something" away in A SAFE PLACE and it is never to be seen again. I know this is not unusual for the human race BUT the scale on which I can manage to loose things is beyond record breaking. I think I could have "misplaced" my children, given the opportunity except for the fact that they were all SO noisy they were hard not to find. (Except for my first born, Kyle, who you never knew was there because he was so quiet. The only way I ever knew he was around was the sound of U2 playing over and over on his stereo. Good thing this was before every one walked around with ear-buds in their ears. I might never have found the boy !)
My major type of lost objects has been jewelry. If I could add up ALL the jewelry I have lost I would be a rich woman today. As a kid I didn't have jewelry to loose so I guess this is a contributing factor in never learning how to be careful with bling. To my credit I can say I still have my original game of "LIFE" and "CLUE". My two most favorite games in the world that I would spend hours playing with my 'imaginary friends". (Being an only child develops unique skills of loosing a board game to a player who doesn't exist. And if you know anything about the game of "CLUE" you know it is virtually impossible to play alone, no less loose!" )
That being said I am not a careless person who does not value my possessions I just have a problem with gifts of jewelry.
I can't begin to tell you how many rings, necklaces and earrings I have lost over the years. The first BIG loss was a small pinkie ring that my father's aunt gave me when I was about 10. Family heirloom? Who knows, but I do know I wore it often until one day it was gone. The next was my diamond from the engagement ring that Ger gave me. I had the ring on my finger for years until the day I tore up carpeting in our bedroom and realized that night the diamond was missing from the ring. I still had the ring on my finger but the diamond was gone forever. That was traumatic to say the least. We searched EVERYWHERE, the vacuum, inside the carpet that was now sitting out by the street waiting for the garbage men, and every other place we could think of. NO DIAMOND ! At that point Ger and I should have realized I was not someone to be trusted with valuable items of jewelry. But NO, on we plowed into the world of, "What can I possibly loose next!" Next was a BEAUTIFUL amethyst dinner ring that Ger asked a friend to bring back from Germany. It was gorgeous and LARGE, The sort of thing that a 30 year old housewife and mother of 3 will never have occasion to wear. but the gesture was lovely and I did wear it occasionally just to show it off. Maybe because I didn't wear it often I didn't pay that much attention to its whereabouts but one day when I DID want to wear it it was no where to be found. (We did not have a huge house and I did not have a HUGE box of jewelry so it wasn't a case of getting lost among the glitter. One smallish jewelry box on the top of the dresser . . . with no dinner ring to be found.) I NEVER saw that ring again. There were numerous necklaces and bracelets over the years, none really of any value other than sentimental until the incident of the wedding ring. THAT is a great story for another day. Suffice to say I lost my wedding ring around 1998. GONE !!!!! Could not find it anywhere even though I knew exactly where I lost it, the downstairs bathroom in our NY house. I checked EVERYWHERE to no avail. 5 years after it's loss we sold the house and moved to Florida. Two years after that I get a call from NY saying my ring was found in the bathroom plumbing when the new owners were renovating. They sent the ring to me and the day it arrived in the mail I LOST it again. It was found 2 days later in Atlanta, GA when Kyle and Bridget returned home from their FL visit. It fell out of Abby's stroller, even though the stroller had been opened and folded up at least 3 times. I guess God really wanted me to keep that ring.
Moving on to 2017 and Dwayne giving me a lovely ring. Not horribly expensive but pretty and meaningful. I wore it for a year off and on and then it went missing. Every time I took the ring off I thought to myself, "PUT THIS AWAY! DON'T LOOSE THIS!" And yet here I was looking EVERYWHERE for the ring. I hadn't moved, the condo isn't that large, only 3 rooms, where the HELL could it have gone? I was ready to start filling out the application for the dementia unit at the local nursing home. But I held off and just put it into God's hands. (Does God have an angel in charge of "Lost and Found" ? ) TWO years later, never having told Dwayne I had "lost" the ring, him never noticing or just never asking, I am cleaning out some closets, which led me to cleaning out under the beds. (Great place to store stuff!) I came up with a bag of crocheting that I have taken out from time to time to work on an Afghan that I started years ago. I decided the tote that the crocheting was in needed to go so I emptied it out and guess what I found in a small pocket inside the bag?! Yup! THE RING ! I could have had that bag for years and never looked in that little pocket but because I decided to get rid of the bag I looked in all the pockets. GO FIGURE !
And so now I have the ring hanging on a jewelry tree in my bedroom and every night and morning I check to make sure it is there. Until I don't check and put the ring down someplace safe. . . Or until I can't remember where the bedroom is.
