Due to metal allergies I only wear the earrings I was pierced with. The safe, non-nickel hypoallergenic wonders that look groovy and keep my lobes from erupting with pockets of gelatinous, oozy infection. I have made several attempts to buy them from stores Like Claire's and Afterthoughts, and considering that I was previously pierced in both places, you'd think they'd allow me to purchase more pairs of these delightful jewelry accessories sans piercing. Well, I thought that anyway. And I was wrong. They always direct me toward a rack of so-called hypoallergenic earrings whose packages claim they're safe but still irritate the hell out of my lobes and cause those pockets of goo I referred to earlier.

I wear my earrings for a few days (or up to two weeks if I'm busy), then take them out and set them aside for cleaning. Since I'm generally in the bathroom when this happens they tend to end up neatly folded into a kleenex, where they stay until I can get around to cleaning them and swabbing them with alcohol. I last took them out two weeks ago and haven't been able to do my little cleaning thing yet, so I put the little kleenex parcel I had so carefully wrapped them in on top of the dishwasher (so I'd see them and remember to clean them), last night. I was in the shower when it occurred to me that I hadn't seen them all morning.

Shit.

Larry threw them out with the trash. We sifted through every piece of garbage in the bag twice and didn't find them. So now the only earrings I could wear are gone and I can't afford to get new ones. The reason I wanted the piercing type is because I can't afford to go to a jewelry store and buy four pairs of really nice ones. My body is very picky about the kind of metal it allows to be inserted into it. And of course it turned out to be my fault Larry thought they were trash since they were wrapped in a kleenex. It never occurred to him to wonder why the kleenex was folded into a neat little parcel and set aside on the dishwasher next to my test kit. It also never occurred to him to wonder why it was so bumpy, that perhaps something might be inside.

It's been a rough morning already anyway, not just because I've lost the earrings, but because Trent has been throwing an almost constant screamfest since he woke up. We don't know why.

So now neither one of us feels like going shopping even though it really needs to be done, so we had to make a compromise about it. He watches the kids while I do it for an hour or two each night after he gets home from work.

At least it will get done.

I think I'd like a nap now.

And some more earrings. I'd like those too.