going, going, gone.

Last week was rough.  I've been under a fair amount of stress with big deadlines at work, combined with my fundraising efforts and just the regular old upkeep and maintenance of a house and gardens.  Then add a series of really discouraging and unfortunate events, and I'm feeling as though God has a message in there somewhere.  I'm usually a very organized, responsible person.  It's one of the things Doug teases me about most.  But last Friday, I lost my wallet.  I went to a bonfire and stashed my purse under a table, and evidently, when I pulled it back out, my wallet stayed behind.  So I went all week with no debit card, no license, nothing. 

Then Monday, my iPhone fell off the back of the living room chair and the screen shattered to bits.

Friday, I put the dog on his leash, and the D-ring on his collar broke, scattering his ID tags to the wind.  (So we were both without ID.  I know my address and he has a chip, so we were probably on equal ground, identity-wise).

Then, I spent Saturday morning putting flags on veterans' graves.  It's been dry, so it took a lot of effort to push the flags down into the hard ground, and my wedding ring was cutting into my finger.  I took it off, and put it in my pocket.  And when I emptied my pocket to put it back on, I had 3 quarters, and lint.  My wedding ring is lost, probably for good, and our personal property deductible is too high to replace it. 

And that was my breaking point.  I went home sobbing.  Doug's a good man.  In a little more than one week, I opened us up to potential identity theft, broke an expensive phone, even lost the symbol of our love and commitment, and he just said "That's why we have Lifelock," "Let's see what kinds of deals we can get on a re-furb," and "It's only a ring, not our marriage," respectively.  And he hugged me.  No yelling.  No berating me for being irresponsible.  If our roles had been reversed, I know I wouldn't have been so understanding, and that's a slice of humble pie.

Since then, my wallet's been returned.  I found a simple, inexpensive wedding band that I like a lot.  Doug found me a cheap Droid, and I don't love it, but it gets the job done.  I've never needed expensive, fancy things, but this past week was an exercise in perspective.  There are more important things to lose than a scrap of leather with some plastic in it.

And also?  Broken iPhone screens are very stabby.