Lucky Nose Rings

At some point, I plan to start a blog/column about dating and relationships. I've been addicted to this one, Single in the Suburbs, told by writer Sara Susannah Katz, a divorced, middle-aged mother of two. I love the way she uses her neurotic, witty humor to detail her online dating experiences.

Excerpt from her last installment:

Sunday, 1:30 a.m.
I brush my teeth, take my meds, and as I’m washing my face I realize that something is missing.

My nose ring.

Oh no. It must have fallen out in Kevin’s bed. I’ll mention it to him tomorrow but the chance of finding that thing — a silver post and teeny rhinestone — is almost nonexistent. I don’t want the hole to close up so I find an earring and try poking it through the hole. OUCH! I can’t even find the hole now. I take a deep breath and try again. OUCH! This is agony. I run downstairs and get an ice cube to numb the spot. One…two…three… OUCH! I am tempted to just let the damn thing close up, but this little nose ring seems to have brought me good fortune and so, like a baseball player who insists on wearing his lucky underwear, I will wear this nose ring even if it kills me.

I finally get it in on the third try and now my whole face is throbbing.

Priceless!! The exact same scenario happened to a friend of mine in college, almost word for word. Freshmen year, as a declaration of our newfound independence, we went to the local tattoo parlor in town where she got her nose pierced and I got my tongue pierced.

To her delight, a few weeks later, she hooked up with a guy she'd had her eye on since the first week of college. The only difference in her version was she interrupted their hot and heavy make-out session to puke in the sink of his dorm room, but it was back to business after that minor mishap! Romantic, no?

Hours later, she stumbled home, disheveled hair a mess, to find us sitting in the center of our dorm section. After getting the dirrrrty details, another friend of mine suddenly blurted out, "Where's your nose ring?"

Shocked and horrified to discover her nose ring missing, my friend was forced to shove a stud earring through her nose. I can't recall if we persuaded her to phone him right then and there, or if she waited until the following afternoon, but she later called to ask if he'd found her nose ring in his bed, or perhaps beside the sink. No such luck.