The other day I was checking out Facebook and saw that my friend Alison’s son’s girlfriend posted something on Alison’s wall about the Iona Marble Quarry which got me thinking about my Iona marble ring that Jeremy’s parents gave me for my 21st birthday the year we stayed a week in a caravan park on the grounds of Castle Sween. I remembered wearing my Iona marble ring to the most recent Burns’ Night at the aforementioned Alison’s house, but had not seen it recently. I assumed it was in one of my jewelry boxes, but went downstairs to check. It was not in either of my jewelry boxes.

I told myself to not panic and figured I would look through drawers over the weekend. I thought that perhaps I gave it to my daughter — the ring is slightly too large for my ring fingers. I texted Clare to see if I gave it to her along with a similar ring I found on the Internet. She replied, “Whooooa no you never gave me that whaaaaat.”

I was sad (but glad I didn’t give it to Clare after all) so I did check one drawer, thinking perhaps I put it there after Burns’ Night and never put it away. I dumped out the contents of the drawer but could not find the ring. I did, however, find Rupert.

I’d been a little worried that I’d lost Rupert, you see. I was too worried to do a whole house search because if I didn’t find him, then he would be lost for ever and ever and that would be sad. Even sadder if I lost the ring. Rupert, if you don’t already know, was originally found by the aforementioned Jeremy in 2002 when we stopped by Todmorden to pay his family a visit.

I was so happy to have found Rupert that I stopped looking for the ring.

On Saturday morning I thought I would check my jewelry boxes one more time. This time I dumped out one of the jewelry boxes on my bed. It didn’t look promising, but I did find a pair of earrings I thought I’d given the aforementioned Clare when her earlobe piercings seemed to be closing up. The posts were a little smaller than most other posts and I thought it would help. You see, for the past several years I have been a little sad because my earlobe piercings seemed to be closed. I could not find a pair of earrings that would fit in the holes and was pretty sure I’d need to have them re-pierced, something I didn’t want to deal with. I tried one earring on — it went through the hole! I tried the other earring and it, too, went through the hole. While I was delighting in my earring success I glanced down at the bed and noticed my Iona marble ring.

All because Alison’s son’s girlfriend posted a link on Alison’s timeline.