For the last 2 years, I have been wearing a lone ruby stud earring on a regular basis, even though I have double-pierced ears and rarely wear jewelry anymore. I began wearing it as a sort of amulet, or what I like to call my "sanity saver." I have objects that I keep for no other reason than they remind me to stay calm and peaceful in times of turmoil.
The ruby stud earring helped me through a difficult depression in late 2005 (which is when I first began writing this blog--can you believe it's almost been 2 years?), it stayed with me through my Mom's terminal illness and death, and it saw me through Ironman Brazil and a summer of intense training last year. It was still going strong this past winter as I completed a 1/2 Ironman, repeated Goofy Challenge, the indoor triathlon series, Triple T and Horribly Hilly.
On a whim last week, while talking to a neighbor of mine, Vicky, who is single and lives across the street from me (she house sits for me when I'm away), I decided to go down to the local festival on Friday night. Vicky said she was walking down and I said I'd join her, what the heck. It was more just an excuse to take a walk, and I thought perhaps get to know her better, and maybe a stop in the beer tent.
We got down there around 5PM, and I was surprised that the craft show was still open! Before I began all this endurance nonsense, I would make a point to go to this craft show and look for jewelry, if nothing else. I have an insane collection of jewelry--most of the precious stones (the four basic food groups being diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire) and tons of the semi-precious. I also like artsy-fartsy jewelry, and am always looking for original items, especially those that aren't mass-produced. All of the beautiful suits and dresses that I sewed back when I needed to dress that way for work have matching jewelry. It's crazy, since I rarely wear the stuff anymore, but somehow I know it will come in handy in the future, and some lucky young lady is going to inherit all my stuff!
Anyway, we get to the craft fair and I see a stand with all this crystal stuff, and that's where I got the necklace. The stone is a Swarovski crystal that is actually an extra chandelier piece. The woman who makes this jewelry gets "overruns" from Swarovski and makes them into various pieces. Of course, my eyes were drawn to all the pink ones, and I had to decide between a true hot pink and the fuchsia one. As you can see, I chose fuchsia, and I'm glad I did.
For reference sake, the size of the stone is about 1 3/4". I have now been wearing this thing during the day as my new amulet. It's tough to miss! Yesterday I was out in the front yard when 3 teen girls were walking by, and I could see they were looking at it, so I showed it to them and told them what it was (they didn't know anything about Swarovski crystal so I told them), and they said it was very pretty.
I know it may appear superstitious, but wearing this is helping me to keep my wits about me during this last stretch of monstrous training. It's tough to be angry, sad or self-critical when I've got it around my neck. I am not wearing it during workouts, though!
Can you imagine the chandelier this was made for? Man, someday...
Things continue to bloom in my yard, and I've created a new Flickr album, which will be updated throughout the week: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8737154@N04/sets/72157600496071836/
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