the girl with the pearl earring

With two exceptions, all of the jewelry I own is total junk. Like, bought it at Claire's for under $6 junk. One exception is the claddagh ring my mother brought back from Ireland for me. It's silver with an emerald stone and a few small diamonds framing the setting. I absolutely adore it. Probably moreso than anyone should ever love a bauble. But in addition to being the first truly nice piece of jewelry I owned in my adulthood, it's coincidentally also the same ring my best friend, Julie, also got in Ireland, which only makes me love it more. The other nice piece of jewelry I own is a string of pearls that my dear friend Bex far too generously brought back from China for me. They're stunning and absolutely my go-to accessory in the Publishing World.

But all of my other jewelry? Junk.

Because I am relentlessly classy, I often pair my breathtakingly gorgeous pearl necklace with a pair of totally-faux pearl earrings that I got in a set of three for under $6 from, yes, Claire's. I'm sorry, but it's true. This was the medium pair in the set, and my favorite. The others are both far too small and way too large for my liking.

I have a pouch on my dresser that is currently serving as a catchall for my junk jewelry (I do actually take care of my two nice pieces. Shocker!) but the other night after brushing my teeth and washing my face to get ready for bed, I took off my cheap, cheap, cheap plastic pearl earrings and set them on the side of the sink.

You already know where this is going, don't you?

I was exhausted, and so David had to sort of wake me up when he came to bed after brushing his teeth.

"S'matter?" I slurred.

"I am so sorry," he said.

"Mmmhuh?"

"I dropped one of your earrings down the sink. I'm so, so sorry. I feel terrible."

I reassured him that the earrings were in no way real pearls and that there was nothing to feel terrible about. "I don't care," I mumbled as I rolled over and almost immediately fell back to sleep. "It's fine, honey. Don't worry about it."

But David did worry about it.

In fact, he surprised me the next evening when he came home with this great score (under $6!) from Target. (Ok, so it's not Claire's but I'm not picky).

Is my guy a sweetheart or what? Now I don't have to stress about which earrings to wear with my pearls when I finally get a job. Or, you know, while I'm folding laundry around the house tomorrow. Whichever.