My Ear-Piercing History

I found this coleus in the trash at the cemetery while walking Bailey on Wednesday. Someone had obviously refreshed the landscaping on a grave and tossed it, and it was all withered, but I thought, "That plant still has life in it!" So now it's in a pot on our patio and, as you can see, it has perked right back up.

I love coleus and yet I rarely buy or plant them, and I have no idea why. I grew some several years ago but that was the last time. So thank you, cemetery gods, for bringing coleus back into my life.

As you can see, yesterday's ear-piercing adventure went off without a hitch. (They even gave me a lollipop, like the bank used to do when I was a kid.) I had it done over in Kilburn at a tattoo/piercing shop. I initially chose plain silver earrings but then, at the last minute, went for "diamonds" (not really diamonds). Why not get some bling?!

The piercing was by hand -- not with a gun, as it was when I first got my left ear pierced at Clare's way back in 1989 or so. This time around, my piercer (piercing technician?), a woman named Logan, carefully measured where the holes should be and made them level, and overall put a lot more consideration into it than the teenager at Clare's, who set my first piercing too low on the earlobe.

Et voila! I'm happy with them! I have to wear these studs two to three months before switching them out for hoops, which is my ultimate plan.

(Remember that ridiculous "rule" back in the day that straight guys got their ears pierced on the left, but gay guys on the right? Was that ever really true or just urban myth? I don't know why I got my first piercing on the left, because I was out to my friends and family by that time, but maybe I didn't want to be that publicly out. I always really wanted them both done, like George Michael in the "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" video, but that was unheard of back in the '80s, at least in Central Florida.)

I had my left ear pierced a second time in Morocco in September 1994. I was a Peace Corps trainer that summer, training new volunteers, and we called our training center by the French term stage, pronounced "stahzh." I wrote on Sept. 9: "I got my ear pierced again last night! ... It was another insane adventure. I raced all over downtown [Rabat] with Claudia and Mary trying to find a place that could do it -- and then, once we'd run through the medina (we had to get back to stage by 7:30 for dinner), we had to find a jeweler with a suitable pair of studs. Most everyone wanted to use these tacky, fake-diamond ones. Cheesy! I made some jewelry guy go hunt down a plain pair. All in all, I paid 50 Dirhams -- and we made it back to stage in time, breathless.")

Pretty funny that I thought fake diamonds were tacky and this time that's what I chose! Later I wore a small silver hoop in each hole. I wish I still had those hoops, which I bought in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, while traveling. As I recall I took them out after I came back to the USA and returned to work as a reporter in December 1994, and only wore them intermittently for the next few years after that. Eventually the holes closed up again.

Anyway, in the photo above you're seeing my new glasses, too. I've gone for a sort of Buddy Holly look. These are simple readers I ordered from Cubitts online and they're better than any glasses I've had in years. Certainly better than those awful varifocal (and then bifocal) lenses I got at the opticians the last time I went. Cubitts from here on out!

Some giveaways on the way to the piercer. I didn't take any of them, but Bailey (lower left) was interested!