Ring around my heart

Jewelry and I don’t have much of a history together.  I went through an eccentric phase in high school or college, though, where I wore pinky rings.  I was on a big frog kick (heh… frog kick) at the time, and I had two different pinky rings with metalworked frogs on them, and I’d switch off which one I’d wear.  It is with embarrassment, but no shame, that I admit to this iffy fashion option.  I have no idea where these rings are now, but they’re probably at the bottom of a box somewhere.

There was also my class ring, but it didn’t fit on my ring finger so I wore it on my left thumb.  At about the same time, I went to college and I decided that wearing a ring on my thumb was lame, so I stopped doing that too.  That ring is in an old classroom-memorabilia box at the farmost corner of our closet.

In college I flirted briefly with necklaces.  I had a peace sign on a black thong.  Other necklaces came along, too, but I always went back to the peace emblem, to the point I was tempted to just skip the pendant and tattoo the peace sign on my sternum.  Never got the tatt, but I did eventually stop wearing the necklace.  I think the thong snapped.

Oh, and earrings.  I got my left lobe pierced in college and I had a couple dozen earrings.  Metal studs, pirate hoops, smiley faces, and yes, even frogs.  Mostly a silver hoop.  There was a plan in motion to pierce both of my ears several more times, and really set off the airport metal detectors, but then I started getting more involved in theater and it wouldn’t make sense to get any new holes in me – thankfully.  I got sick of taking earrings out and putting ‘em back in again every night I had a performance, even with just the one piercing, so I let that one go as well.  I held on to the earrings for a good long while, eventually letting Elle look through them for any she wanted, and getting rid of the rest.

So it seems that I have had a more torrid relationship with jewelry than I initially led myself to believe.  But the point is, I haven’t worn an earring, a pendant, a necklace, or even a pinky ring in nearly ten years.  Heck, when I can get away with it, I don’t even wear socks.

Now, I have a wedding ring.

This is an awesome ring.  We bought it in Prague, when we were vacationing there last fall.  It’s a pewter color, with beveled edges and a brushed-steel looking finish around the band.  And it’s made of tungsten carbide, which is incredibly tough.  I’m not sure what you make out of tungsten, but once you make it you’re not breaking it.  I could steamroll my ring (but I won’t) and still wear it, once I pried it out of the concrete.  The ring is also heavy, because the material ain’t styrofoam.  When I wear my ring, I know I’m wearing a ring.

This is very good, because it breaks the habit of not wearing one.  To be perfectly frank, wearing the ring was something I was worried about as the wedding approached.  What if I can’t stand wearing a ring, I asked myself?  What if it’s too tight, too loose, too hot, too whatever?  Then, it’s so small, a ring.  Even with my big fingers, a ring is pretty small relative to, say, a laptop or a sofa.  What if I lose it?  I’m a fidgeter!  What if I drop my wedding ring down a sewer grate?  Oh my god!

When we were on the honeymoon, which was obviously the first place to really get used to wearing the ring, I left it off my finger a fair bit of the time.  I took it off for the jungle adventuring we did – jaguars like shiny things, probably – and I took it off for the diving too – I figure turtles and sharks just love eating shiny stuff.  Between not having my finger eaten and not dropping my ring onto the ocean floor, it seemed a better bet to leave the ring in our room safe.  In my defense for my skittishness, Elle did the same thing.  We wore them for dinner, and happy hour, and other social and non-daredevil things, and we played it safe more often than not.

Here’s what’s awesome.  I missed wearing my ring when I didn’t have it on.  Even when it was brand-new, I missed the already-familiar weight of it around my finger.  Blessing of a heavy ring, I guess, but I always felt its absence when it was in the safe.  It was the first thing I did when we got back from gallivanting – open the safe and grab the rings.

Now that we’re home, I only take it off to shower, and I hook it round my glasses so I know right where it is.  I’m not losing it, and this way I’m putting it back on before my specs.  It does get hot, and I definitely do fidget with it, but there’s no question that I’ve completely embraced the permanent addition to my wardrobe.

Maybe it’s time to think about those piercings again.

~ by joshkauffman on July 17, 2009.