Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Obsession



It was a gorgeous day --perfect for getting out and doing some garden cleanup . . . . 

But first, I thought, I'll just find that other earring -- it dropped a few weeks ago when I was in a hurry and I didn't see where it landed.  At the time, I'd looked and it wasn't on the rug and it wasn't under the dresser. Therefore, I reasoned, it must have gone into the top drawer  -- which was a gaum (see past post) of such daunting proportions that I postponed the search. 

But now it was time -- I'm fond of that earring and it's solid gold -- worth looking for. So I took EVERYTHING out of the top drawer, did some much needed throwing out -- though not as much as is probably really needed -- among other things, I still have a silk scarf from India that I bought at the UN in 1960. . . I gave it to my mother to use in one of those transparent Lucite handbags that were trendy back then. And then when my mother died, it came back to me -- the scarf -- the Lucite purse is long gone.

The top drawer was edited and tidy. But no earring. On to the middle drawer . . . 

 
Wherein I found this quaint night gown which I made thirty-something  years ago. A friend had learned to smock and was willing to teach a bunch of us. We met regularly at my house and made all sorts of smocked things. We called our teacher "Mother Smocker" and we were the Smockettes. Ah, memories . . .  

 All three drawers were turned out and edited. And the day was half over. What the hell, I thought. I might as well tackle my closet -- the repository of mysterious boxes and quite a few dust bunnies, as well as garments and shoes I will never wear again. Onward!

 
First you have to pull everything out -- making another big gaum . . .

 Boxes of framed photos, boxes of books, boxes of snapshots and newspaper clippings that never made it into scrapbooks . . . at the end of the day I had two bags of clothing for a local charity, two large bags of trash, and a much nicer closet. 

But I never found that earring.
 
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19 comments:

Martin said...

It'll turn up, when you least expect to find it.

Reader Wil said...

Such a pity, Vicki! But it must be somewhere.
Tell us when you find it!
I hope spring has come in your part of the world. Here we see the bulbs showing up. But we never had such a cold month of March in a long time.

Thérèse said...

The word "Smockettes" is such a pleasing word.
The earring will probably pop up from nowhere...

Brian Miller said...

the cool thing about looking for things is you find other things...and memories...pretty cool findings along the way...the bedclothes remind me of my mother...

Kath said...

I hope you find your earring, but I have a theory on missing shiny things and brownies (not the eating or Girl Scout kind.)
You've inspired me.

Pat in east TN said...

I also hope you find that earring, but its refreshing to know someone else has drawers and closets full of this/that saved over the years. You've inspired me to "dig in" today and clear out/rearrange.

KarenB said...

Yay for clean drawers and closets! Boo for still missing earring. My mother says, when I'm looking for something, "Everything's gotta be somewhere!" which for some reason doesn't make me feel any better when I can't find it.

Jean Baardsen said...

I really enjoyed this post. Thanks for taking us along with you!

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

I love the title of your post. When I lose something, especially something important or valuable, I become obsessed with finding it too. When I don't, the obsession gets worse. My suggestions, which usually works for me but very hard to do - step back, breathe, find something else to do to take your mind off of it and look again later. In almost all instances, I kept looking, even in the same places, over and over, and eventually found it.

The only thing worse than this is putting something away in a "safe place" and then not be able to remember where the safe place is.
Sam

Vicki Lane said...

Oh, yes, Sam -- the forgotten 'safe place.' I have lots of those.

Carol Murdock said...

Some happy hunting for another day! Maybe your unseen friend is messing with you and hid it! HA! Hope you find it!

Barbara Rogers said...

Congratulations on a job well done...though not intended. Isn't it funny how we can start out in one direction and arrive with a sense of completeness in a completely other one! Love your smocking! Must have taken hours and hours.

NCmountainwoman said...

Oh, but you found so much. And the earring will turn up.

Polly Iyer said...

And I thought I was accomplishing something when I threw out 10 years of magazines yesterday. Tackling my closet would be a much bigger undertaking. Clothes go back much further than 10 years. From the look of that earring, maybe it caught on something. Bedskirt? Hope you find it, Vicki.

Susan said...

Maybe at the bottom of your washing machine tub...sometimes the repository of interesting items, I've found!

Deanna said...

I had a favorite earring disappear recently. Weeks later it turned up on my desk at work with a note that they hoped I could find the owner. You betcha! That earring will turn up. The Smockettes had to be a play on the Smurfs. Ahhh memories indeed. They were my babysitters every Saturday morning.

Darla said...

well, my goodness ... look at all the fun I've missed out on since I moved around so much in my life! LOL The smock is great...really love it. :-)

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Brenda said...

Well how fortunate you lost the earring, look at all the other treasures you unearthed, and how much you got accomplished. Maybe I should try to lose an earring! I am curious - did the framed photos go back in the closet? I have several boxes of framed photos, gorgeous pics of my parents as youngsters, and framed baby pics of people I don't know. I have moved them from place to place, the boxes weigh a ton. I have chastized myself...why am I keeping these?? But they remain in the closet.

I am also curious if there is any way besides word veri to get rid of the stupid Anonymous spammers. Seems to have gotten so much worse lately!