When I was really little, I really wanted my ears pierced. My mother didn’t have her ears pierced, and my sisters and I found pierced ears no end of fascinating. But we weren’t allowed to have our ears pierced; my father thought it was gross.
I don’t remember what the age was when the ban was lifted. I do know that Meghan, my older sister, pretty much had her ears pierced almost immediately. And the age was reduced for Emily (as is so often the way with the younger one), and she, too, got her ears pierced pretty readily. She now has Several Piercings. I don’t remember how many. And Meghan, too, might have more than one in each ear. They are So Cool.
But I carried on unpierced. I just didn’t want to be bothered. I didn’t wear clip-on earrings much, and I didn’t have use for them. I figured that holes in my earlobes would want earrings (the hole unoccupied is rather unsightly, isn’t it?), and I didn’t want to have to think that hard about earrings all the time.
You don’t have to think hard, people would say. You can leave the same earrings in for as long as you want, they would say. As if they were wanting to sell me on getting my ears pierced or something. And that’s weird.
Bill liked the fact that I didn’t have my ears pierced. I was one of Very Few who didn’t have them done. He thought it was different– sexy, even. And this way, he could always identify me in a line-up: I’ll take the one without pierced ears.
Once, when I was Very Pregnant with Emma Grace, I decided to get my ears pierced. Lynne was all set to take me. She has Innumerable Piercings in her ears, and while she wasn’t eager to get mine pierced, she was Pleased. It was High Time, I think she thought, and so we set out. But Bill had to kiss my earlobes good-bye before we left, and that gave me Pause.
I chickened out.
And I never regretted it.
I became friends with Rachel, and she was flabbergasted when she discovered that I didn’t have my ears pierced. Why? she wanted to know. Why would I not have them pierced? Rebecca. You should get your ears pierced. Why? I wanted to know. Because, she said.
Still, I didn’t do it.
And then I started teaching full-time last fall. And it seemed that every day I was suddenly wearing earrings. It just seemed professional. It just seemed like the thing to do for a put-together look. It just seemed right. And while clip-ons work, and Do Nicely, they also Hurt sometimes, and they also Get Lost, and they are also not nearly as varied in style or as readily available in stores.
And then I got my hair cut short. And then I decided to get my ears pierced.
I called Rachel. Rachel, it’s time, I said. And we went to the mall on Sunday after church, and I got my ears pierced. I was 37 years old.
That was seven weeks ago today.
I took good care of my ears. I cleaned them, I turned the sweet little pearl earrings around, as you are supposed to do. And when the six-week mark passed, I went to Target, where Emma Grace and I (Emma Grace is a Fashion Maven, like Rachel) perused their vast selection of pierced earrings. All of them were available to me; I didn’t even bother checking to see if they were clip-ons, because that little (elusive) trait no longer mattered. In the end, I was Entirely Overwhelmed by the selection and came home with nothing at all.
So last night, when I finally decided to take off my original earrings, I was doing it Just Because I Could. It had been More than six weeks; it was safe to take them off.
I took one off; I removed the other. And I couldn’t get them back on.
I decided that maybe I had picked at them a little too much (did I mention that I picked at them? Why? I don’t know, so don’t ask me); maybe they were a little irritated. I would just go to sleep, and try to put them back in in the morning.
And I was successful– with one earring. The other is, uh, still waiting for me upstairs. I wore One Earring all day (and hoped no one would notice but at least two people did and this was worse than going around with two blank holes in my earlobes) and am really hoping I’ll be able to get the other one in before I stand in front of my students tomorrow.
I don’t care anymore about getting more, nicer pairs of earrings. I just want the ones I already have to work again.
*sigh*
I’m going to bed. But before I do, Bill is going to (re)pierce my ear.
