What my mom taught me

Lately, I've been making an effort to look... what? More put together? Less like a slob? Like a girl? All of the above, I guess.

I went through a period when I was simply too overwhelmed with my life to even think about how I looked. I put myself last and let me tell you, it showed! I looked rough. Slouchy. Hideous. Tired. Frumpy.

Not that I claim to look all fabulous now, but I care. Something clicked last summer after I was sick. I guess laying around feeling like crap for a month will do that for you.

When I began to join the living again, I decided that I wanted to look like I wasn't still sick. Or something like that. And okay-- I admit it. Its just a teeny, tiny bit fun to shop. And buy cute clothes. And earrings, necklaces, and bracelets to go with them. Always on sale, of course!

So, I'm accessorizing. Its kind of funny. When I was going through my rebellious-gothic-awkward stage in high school, I had four holes pierced in each ear. I spent many moments of time in front of the mirror every morning before school, making sure all of my earrings were in place. I was also straightening my black hair and applying my black eyeliner that looked oh so wonderful against my pale never-touched-by-the-sun skin. Yes. I was that cool.

But anyway. Back to the earrings. After I got a job, graduated, got married, and had a sick baby, my priorities kind of changed... and I didn't have time to think about earrings anymore. For about 11 years. I never took the time to bother with them much until a few months ago. And I guess I'm still not entirely back in the habit because I keep losing them. One at a time, while they're still in my ears. And because I'm still not quite used to having things in my ears, I don't notice they're gone until someone is kind enough to point it out to me.

Which is what happened on Sunday. I was sitting behind the information desk talking to a friend when suddenly she stopped mid-sentence and asked if I was missing an earring. Of course I was. Luckily, I found the missing earring. It had fallen out of my ear and was stuck to my shirt. But the back was missing.

And suddenly, I had a flashback:

I was in elementary school and had lost the back to one of my super-cool earrings from Claire's Boutique while in the car on the way to school. I was just going to skip the earrings altogether but then my mom gave me some very wise advice. She said to me, "Just bite the end off of a pencil eraser. It'll work just fine until we get home and find another back". And so I did. And it worked. My mom's pretty smart.

So, that's just what I did yesterday. And, since I never did find that pesky little back, I wore the same earrings with the same eraser back again today.

And it made me smile!