Thursday, February 09, 2006

sometimes the ice just ain't your friend

okay, i know i haven't posted in a while, but things have been crazy and haven't gone as well as i had hoped. i've been frustrated and restless and couldn't seem to figure out why until i had this weird, superstitious idea. i'm not sure if it's all in my head, but as soon as i followed my instinct, things seemed to get a little brighter. all i needed to do was get rid of the bling.

i come from a long line of women who believe you're running around practically naked if you 'don't have anything in your ears or your throat.' meaning, of course, that a proper woman never leaves the house unadorned, even if it isn't anything fancy. so over the years i've accumulated bit of jewelry -- mostly because my family members love me and hope i'll like it, but also partly because i don't see most of them for years at a time. let's face it, unless you're considerably large for your age, a necklace or earrings is gonna fit.

because of this i have a shelf on my bookcase full of containers. one big box with stained glass on the little doors and revolving hooks and drawers, furry linty boxes that open on a hinge, tiny round and square plastic boxes with scripty store names engraved on the lids, zippered velvet bags in all kinds of shapes and sizes. all holding trinkets and baubles. and all of them beautiful. (well, except the one really hideous silver necklace/earring set with several black stones the size of quarters hanging off it. i would never be caught dead in anything so flashy. it's pretty, but really not my style.)

on top of that, i'm lazy. i usually wear plain hoops and a thin chain, maybe with a small pendant like the cool-looking hollow one that looks like a bullet and is full of holy wax from a famous church that my aunt traveled really far to pray at. the only items i wear with any regularity are my silver anklets, and i haven't worn them all winter because my boots are form-fitting and cause them to dig into my ankles. other than that, i change my jewelry about once every couple of months. if i remember.

about a month ago, i was looking for something my mom wanted and started feeling guilty for having nice stuff and never wearing it. i knew i'd never be on top of things enough to change it up every day, let alone match my outfits, so i decided to bust out something out of the ordinary. i found these gold studs my uncle's wife bought for me -- two sets, for both sets of my ear piercings, with one little smaller for the upper ones, and both with just a little bit of bling in them. diamonds, i guess. then i found a matching ring my mom bought herself to keep her wedding ring from sliding off after she'd lost a few pounds with a few small stones in it. very pretty. i decided i'd try it out for awhile.

it was hard to remember to put it on in the morning, but i got into the swing of it. the ring would be nice to fiddle with during boring meetings or while i was waiting for the shuttle bus. but i swear, the day i started sporting the bling, things started to go wrong. everything i tried to do with the best intentions seemed to hit a snag. meetings didn't go according to plan, i seemed to always say and do the wrong thing at the wrong time and what did go right wasn't always received well. i got into stupid tiffs with people i loved, and was paranoid about what the people i liked thought of me. i caught all the red lights when i was in a hurry, and the store was always out of what i was looking for. the post office lost my netflix dvds, so i had nothing to watch for almost two weeks. i got the flu. and then the stupid new blind eyebrow lady yanked out more than half of my brows but left annoying stray hairs that i had to spend 2 hours taking care of myself. i just couldn't catch a break. and i'll look like a constantly surprised freak for another two weeks.

again, maybe it was all in my head. but it was starting to get me down and i couldn't figure out why everything was going so very wrong. until this morning. when i traced the start of my misfortune to the day i changed the jewelry. so i took it off and put it back in the box. today i didn't have to wait in line at the bank. or for my haircut. and even though i took off five inches, i'm pretty happy with my hair. the store had a full supply of the conditioner i was looking for, which is constantly sold out. i managed to do an afternoon's worth of errands in an hour and a half and was EARLY for work. i prevented a big mistake during my shift. my lunch order, and that of three other people, was somehow not all screwed up. my car just happened to be close enough to under the bridge that there wasn't too much snow to clean off of it when i got off work. and i actually have a couple of days off this weekend.

who says the sparkle in your life has to come from a diamond? i'm rocking some boring silver earrings i bought at Claire's Boutique in 1997 for ten bucks.

and i feel great.

10 comments:

lucasjackson7 said...

whoa, your jewelry holds mystical powers. perhaps i should leave the bling at home. i'm hoping for a pair of tickets to the black eyed peas. oh, that and they never seem to have food samples when i'm at the grocery store.

A said...

I'm the idiot who doesn’t own any jewelry to speak of. The ear rings I have on right now have not been changed in, let’s see, 8 years and there are two rings that I absolutely love and wear everyday.

I do know what you mean though…I do have my superstitions…

Lia said...

i never used to wear any jewelry - i spent years convincing people not to buy me any. so now they don't, which is a shame, because i've started liking to wear it, and i've had to start a reeducation campaign.

I wear the same ring all the time, and i have a pair of earrings and a necklace that are my standard and get changed on very special occasions only. Never noticed any karma changes, though.

X said...

Constantly surprised? Like Nina Sky in that Move Ya Body video of theirs? They looked pretty funny.

***

This quote I'll guess is from the kid Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, but I couldn't tell you what song it is.

---X

Unknown said...

so whatcha doin' with those days of??

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

If I wear expensive bling around town, I'd really get bad luck...theives hahaha.

Can you try it again just to see what would happen? :-D

Mike said...

So, if you stopped wearing all your jewelry, would things keep getting better? Or is there some kind of limit?

cadiz12 said...

well, lucasj, if you score those tix, be sure to get there on time; we missed most of their act when they opened for gwen b/c they closed a main road.

i feel that way about the imitation earrings i have on right now, A. it becomes a comfort.

i know the feeling, lia. once i told somebody i thought giving flowers is lame b/c they just die. it's so hard to undo that kind of damage.

you got it, x. unfortunately i haven't seen that video, but i'm sure i know what you're talking about. don't worry; they're growing back.

maxxin and relaxin, ale.

yeah, you gotta watch out for those theieves. it's too bad you have to, though. i'm sure i will try again adn then somethign really bad will happen.

maybe diamonds (hope or otherwise) just are not good luck for me. i'll have to switch to other precious stones...

i don't know, viking. i'll have to check it out and get back to you. i have a lovely ring with some amber stones in it that seem to make me happy.

so true, dem. i'm more superstitious than most people, so i'm finding things to be weird about in everything. my mom doesn't wear that ring anymore either. i'll take that as proof.

jazz said...

ahh claire's. i remember getting my ears pierced there when i was like 5....

my mom told me she'd buy my cotton candy if i did it and didn't cry.

excellent day. holes in my ears AND cotton candy!

glo said...

Hm. Must find what's causing my bad JuJu. Wish it *were* a diamond ring. That way at least it would be pretty bad JuJu.

Okay - self-centered comment over. Hope things keep looking up.