Small Miracles

I thought I’d written a pretty detailed account of my adventures at the L.A. Gift Show, but I left out one important part. While I was at the show, a miracle occurred. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a small miracle. Not more than a 1.0 on the miracle Richter scale, really, but it made an impact on me.

As some of you know, I’ve been going through a difficult time in my personal life. In violation of all true blogger principles, however, I’ve refrained from posting the ugly details here because A. they are UGLY details and B. it’s just too painful right now. But, my point is, any little GOOD thing that comes my way these days is extra-appreciated.

Now, let’s get back to my miracle. It involves a pair of earrings (see how I tied that whole personal-life-experience thing back to the main theme of this blog?). There was nothing really special about this pair of earrings. They were plain, cast sterling silver circles with a hummingbird and flower design that I picked up years and years ago in a gift shop at the Marriott Palm Desert hotel (the hummingbird is the official symbol for that hotel). They became my “every day” earrings. I never had to worry about matching them to anything because they were casual enough to wear with jeans, but still nice enough to go to work. They were lightweight so I could wear them all day without getting a headache and they didn’t “clank” into the phone when I picked it up at work. They didn’t dangle so much that my son could get a hand on them and yank when he was a baby which is probably the reason why I still have the ability to wear pierced earrings to this day.

So, I proceeded to go on my merry way wearing these earrings almost every day for a number of years and over time I got really attached to them. Not only did they remind me of a great vacation, but they made getting dressed and accessorizing in the mornings REALLY easy.

Then, one day I went shopping. And I tried on clothes - lots and LOTS of clothes. I kept taking tops off over my head and putting new ones on. You know what’s coming, right? I got home that night to discover to my utter HORROR that I’d lost one of my hummingbird earrings! I searched the entire house and the inside of the car. I called the stores I’d been in. I went back to the stores I’d been in. No hummingbird earring. Later that year when my family went back out to the Marriott, I searched all of the gift shops for a replacement pair. No hummingbird earring. I did get a cool set of Brighton jewelry on that trip, though, but I digress…

For the next year, I kept the one remaining hummingbird earring on my dressing table in the forlorn and useless hope that its mate would somehow miraculously reappear. Every day when I got dressed and reached for a pair of earrings to put on, that little hummingbird stared accusingly up at me as if to say “how could you lose my other half?”

Eventually, for my own peace of mind (and remaining scraps of sanity), I had to put that earring away somewhere and move on with my life.

Cut to this weekend at the gift show. My friend Jenie is busy at a Thai silver booth and looks like she’s going to be a while so I start idly browsing through some of the nearby booths. None of them hold much interest for me – some ugly purses and wigs (and why are wigs in the jewelry section for heaven’s sake?), some really tacky rhinestone crap, an over-priced gemstone vendor and a silver casting vendor. I’ve already bought a lot of silver at the show and don’t really want to spend any more, but Jenie is still drooling over the Thai silver and doesn’t look to be done any time this century so I decide to start poking through the tiny, pill-box containers of silver that are all over this table. I mean, you never know, I might find something that I REALLY NEED to have!

So, I look through a few containers – pretty boring, typical stuff that I’ve seen at a zillion vendors. I leave that section behind and move to another section and look through a few bins there. Yawn. I turn back around to check on Jenie…nope, still shopping, so I go back to the silver booth.

I stick my hand in one last container that I’m not really even looking at as my hand goes in (hey, a cute guy walked by and I got distracted, so sue me). I look down to see what I’ve pulled and DAMNED if it isn’t the EXACT, IDENTICAL cast sterling silver hummingbird and flower design from my earring!

I squealed. At least, I think that’s how one would describe that sound – I’ve never actually made that sound before so I’m not sure. I call the vendor over and tell him I’ll take two of them (after I dig through a few pieces to make sure the sizes match up exactly). By now, I’m bouncing up and down and mumbling “I can’t believe this…I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!” to myself over and over. Needless to say, the vendor looks at me rather strangely and I say, “but you don’t understand…I’ve been looking for these for FOREVER!” I tell him my story about the lost earring which clearly makes no impression on him whatsoever, but he does proceed to take my money and wrap up the charms for me.

By now, everyone in the booth is staring at me. And they weren’t doing the normal, every day type of stare, either. No, I was getting the “crazy bag lady mumbling to herself and it’s time to think about slowly edging away for my own safety” kind of stares. But, I didn’t care. The earrings are BACK, baby!

So, I race across the aisle to where Jenie is STILL shopping for Thai silver and I interrupt her (big, BIG mistake…never get between a jewelry artist and the merchandise she’s zeroed in on) and excitedly tell her my story. I have to give her huge credit for remaining calm in the face of my insanity, not ditching me at the show, and not quietly pointing me out to security and having me carted off to the asylum (which is what I think the other people at the previous booth were plotting to do).

Then, of course, I had to see what was so completely fascinating at the Thai silver booth and realized they had some cool stuff that I didn’t have in my silver collection so I did end up buying some things there and I'd put a picture here, but blogger.com seems to be anti-pictures today for some reason and is not letting me upload ANYTHING. So, I'll post 'em later.

Anyway, that’s the story of my miracle. It was small, but it sure made my day. Okay, the massive shopping expedition, great company and fabulous dinner played a part, too, but it was the unexpected find of a real treasure that was the icing on the cake.

And today, I came to work wearing my restored hummingbird earrings and my beautiful new alexandrite pendant (pictured in a previous entry). To top it all off, this morning, my son was kind of staring at me and I asked, “What’s wrong, honey? Does Mommy look funny?” He paused and said, “No, Mom, you look great.” And then he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Life is good.

KJ