gratitude-a-thon day 105: finding the lost

Yesterday I had one of those funny things happen that gives you a big surprise dose of gratitude. It’s so great that you don’t even have to focus on finding the gratitude, it just presents itself in your lap like a super pretty gift box with a big freaking bow on it.

Last Christmas Peter gave me a pair of earrings from Tiffany. So sweet, right? I love him for doing it. I am a jewelry whore, so he tries to indulge, but I hated the earrings. I tried to like them. I put them under my hair, I put them outside my hair, I looked at them with squinty eyes, but I still hated them. They were not at all my style. Ugh! I hated to spit in the face of his efforts, but I had to tell him that they just kind of weren’t me and I was going to take them back.

So, I took them back and bought one of those sweet Diamonds by the Yard bracelets that’s a Tiffany classic. I wore it three times before realizing it had gone missing. I realized it after going to brunch with a friend. I called her to search her car. Like a bloodhound, I hunted my house, my clothes, the street where the restaurant was. I called the scene of the bracelet’s last wearing, but they hadn’t found it. I had a very deep shag rug in my room at the time. I raked that thing with my fingers dozens of times. But nothing, except once I found a safety pin. I would have given myself a spanking, but I couldn’t reach my big butt. I was so angry. So annoyed with myself.

Anyway, life went on, and sometime I would have delusions of finding the bracelet somewhere when I was cleaning, like it would magically appear. I have had this happen twice with jewelry. I once had a Janine Payer necklace that I was madly in love with because it said (in teeny tiny writing) “See the world as yourself. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things.” Plus it was just really pretty. I thought I had lost it coming back from a massage. I had concocted a story that it fell out of my bag, where I shoved it because I realized I was late for a meeting and hadn’t put it on, but instead jammed it half heartedly into a pocket of my handbag in order to speed things up. Well, when I couldn’t find it, I called Stephanie, the massage person, I went back to the street and hunted on the ground (with all sorts of people looking at me like I was mentally ill). I turned my bag inside out. And after a few weeks, I gave up. A year later, when I went to get out my beach bag that had sunscreen and stuff in it, there it was. I had instantly remembered taking Ally and a friend to the beach and taking it off and putting it in this little net sunscreen bag. But prior to that, I had made up this whole other story (which I admit, is really weird, and maybe the people watching me hunt for it on the ground, where it had never fallen to begin with, were right in their assessment of my mental health).

The other time I had this happen, which was really quite astounding, was with a tiny gold pair of earrings that had a little diamond in them and which I had fallen hopelessly in love with. I splurged on them and paid way to much for them because of their designer name. The very first time I wore them, I lost one. I had been shopping for a friend’s birthday gift and had literally gone to six stores. So, I went back to every single one of those stores in search of this miniscule gold disc, but are you kidding, even if it was somewhere, I would never have found it. I eradicated my car of all dirt in the search. I went through every area of every area of my house. I came up empty. Despondent, a few weeks later, I sheepishly went back to the store and told my story. They ordered me a new one, meaning that I was spending even more for these stupid earrings than the more I had already spent. A YEAR LATER. A YEAR. I was in the kitchen, looked down and there sparkling on the floor, WHERE I’D LOOKED A MILLION TIMES, AND WHICH HAD BEEN VACUUMED AND WASHED A MILLION TIMES was the earring. I couldn’t even believe it. So much so, that I actually thought it might be the new one. I went upstairs to check, but saw that no, indeed it was the original earring. I now had three. I never figured out how this happened, except that maybe it had been hooked on the broom or a piece of clothing and had traveled to the kitchen on an item, showing up to shock the pants off of me!

Ok, so back to yesterday. I was having a couple of rugs cleaned. I had ordered them to be cleaned on the premises, but I was grocery shopping when the guys came, and my husband was handling it. When I walked onto the porch, the guys were carrying the rugs out. We had a little back and forth about how they were supposed to be cleaned in the house, and then we went through the process and I was irked, because this was not my phone conversation or order, and i decided because the guy was telling me about not being able to get out all the spots, that the long shag rug in my bedroom might be a lost cause, because Riley had puked on it. So, they took it out of the van to assess, and the minute they did, I saw a glint of silver in the sun and in a rush of hope, I retrieved the Tiffany bracelet, from the shag!!!!!!!!!! I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE SUPRISED IF RILEY HAD SAID, “WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE GET MY FOOD, I DON’T HAVE HANDS?” IN WORDS INSTEAD OF BARKS.

Anyway, major GRATITUDE sprung from my lips. Even the two rug guys were thrilled! It was a moment of unexpected, completely out of the blue GLEE. I marvel at how many times that rug was vacuumed and how many times I had literally, on hands and knees, sifted through the shag with my fingers, while all the while that bracelet was hiding, in plain site. I told the guy to be careful with the rug, who knew what else he’d find it, there could be body. I love how if I hadn’t had to re-examine the worth of cleaning that rug, I would not have found the darn bracelet. I love how every moment mattered in this awesome discovery. Obviously, I really need to fasten jewelry to my body better, or stop wearing it. Although the days of finding items I’ve lost do give me a jolt of gratitude that’s pretty magical, so maybe I’ll just carry on as is.