I’ve had my wedding ring for a very long time. And because of my poor track record (one time, I actually found my wedding ring in the garbage can!!), I try as much as possible to just keep the thing on my finger. That includes when I play sports, when I go rollerblading, when I go horseback riding, when I go swimming/hot tubbing, when I’m cooking or cleaning…

So today, while I was having lunch at my friend’s house, I looked down, twirled my ring around my finger, and bam! I noticed one of the small pave diamonds was gone. Shit. The last time I busted stones out of this thing, it was after I had spent 12 hours assembling a monster office desk from Staples. In the final step of assembly, John and I lifted the table top + hutch combo (SUPER HEAVY) to set it onto the leg supports. Because the damn thing was so f-ing heavy, I set it down misaligned and in a split second, all the weight crushed onto my fingers (and ring). My perfectly round ring got totally bent out of shape (it looked like the state of Ohio after that), and I lost 3 or so of the accent diamonds. Ugh.

So now, about 11 years after first receiving this precious bauble and 7 years after that first accident, now I have to get it fixed again. And sadly, my ring is all dirty from neglect. All those soaps and lotions sure add up. Yes, I will have to clean it before I hand it over to the experts. Kinda like how my friends pre-clean their houses before the cleaning lady comes…

I do love my ring. I remember how I was totally drawn to all those super simple, blocky, modern designs in the beginning…  oddly though, when I tried those on in the stores, they looked awful– totally mismatched for my hand.  This ring was uber sparkly and kinda princessy. I really didn’t want to like it. But when I put it on, it just made my hand look so long and slender and beautiful… like the hand of a hand model (Sigh! The profession that got away!) .

I really should take better care of my ring. This is a good reminder. Maybe I’ll add monthly cleanings/brushings to my Google cal. 😉