Just called the garage, my car is STILL not fixed, which means there is a good chance I will be stuck with my rental car until I come back from my trip. It’s not a terrible thing, it’s just irritating and makes my life complicated. On the other hand, my ring got fixed!

And then I outgrew that ring and my Dad brought me another from a business trip, and I outgrew that one and got another one made of a shell which just completely shattered when I hit it on a door, and then I got another one, and so on and so on. Until I was 14 and I put “ring” on my Christmas list again, and this time Grandma suggested we go shopping together for it.

My Grandmother must have been a saint, because shopping with an uncommunicative 14 year old girl is not fun. We went to lots and lots of stores and looked at lots and lots of rings but I didn’t find any of them “cool”. And then finally she took me to a “real” jewelry store and I fell in love with a “real” ring. Grandma was all excited to buy me my first piece of good jewelry. I put it on right away and didn’t take it off for 5 years. And then in my freshman year of college I stayed late at the cafeteria talking to my first new college friend, it was the night that kind of cemented our friendship, and I walked back to the dorms feeling all happy to have a real friend at college and looked down at my hand and discovered I had lost the central stone from the ring.

I put it on a chain around my neck and didn’t take it off for another 5 years, until my Grandmother died. And then I decided it was time to find out if I could get it fixed. I took it in to a jewelers and it actually wasn’t that hard or expensive! The center stone was cheap cheap cheap, I just had to pay for that and the actually repair and it didn’t take any time at all. I had my ring fixed for about 3 months, and then I was out on a boat with new friends from work, the day that really cemented my friendship with them, and the jib sheet snapped and the stone went flying out again. So the ring went back around my neck for another few years.

I took it in to the jewelers again, finally, after I got my first real job and had the money saved up to fix it again, and this time I told them to use the cheapest stone they had because I didn’t want to pay for something I was just going to lose. They stuck in a cheap ugly stone but they stuck it in REALLY REALLY WELL. It stayed there for 5 years until just recently when it went flying out while I was putting coins in a coin machine. Back around my neck it went. And then this summer my car died, the one I inherited from my other Grandmother, and I decided it was a sign and I should get the ring fixed. This time I paid for a really good stone and got it all fixed and pretty. And it only lasted about 4 months.

But it’s fixed now. I made a big stink at the jewelry store because I had told them they needed to be careful and really force the stone in and they didn’t listen to me. And they fixed it again for free! I still have no faith in their workmanship, but I will enjoy the stone for as long as it lasts. It’s kind of a nice reminder to take life as it comes and never count on anything lasting forever, the stone goes away but then I just get another one that is different, but the same.

Just like dogs, or friends. Or cars I guess, except I REALLY REALLY HATE MY RENTAL CAR!!!