Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

One Hand in My Pocket

posted at 11:01 am
on Dec. 8, 2002

Comments: 0 so far

Permalink

 

Previous entry:
Three quick things

Next entry:
Brand New Aphorisms

I forgot to wear my wedding ring on Friday.  I was sitting in my office at work and I went to get my cell phone from my left front pocket, and instead of my hand getting caught on the rim like usually happens, it just slipped right in, and I knew something was wrong.

On Thursday night, I was faced with a rather harsher-than-usual cat litter box, and I decided it might be a good ounce of prevention to remove my ring before trying to lift pour bag haul dump.  I put the ring in the little tiny jeans pocket, you know, the one you can’t get a quarter back out of.

I washed my hands, watched some TV, went to bed, got out of bed the next morning, had a shower, woke up, got dressed, drove to work.  Note the lack of an item that says “Put ring back on finger, any finger.”

So there I was sitting at work, with one hand completely naked hand.  (The other hand, though ringless, was acceptably so, like Porky Pig running around without pants.)

Taking off my wedding ring is a fairly rare occurrence, basically limited to those times when it would either be dangerous (i.e. clumsily working with power tools), disgusting (removing things from inside a turkey), or just too damn itchy.

But even in those circumstances, to actually forget the thing is off, that’s super rare.

In fact, the last time I can remember I forgot, unless there’s one I’m forgetting to remember, is the day after we got back from our honeymoon.

In my defense, I was still kind of new to this whole ring thing then.  I took it off to wash the car, and it didn’t even cross my mind to put it back on.

Of course, I did remember when, later, Susie and I were at a friend’s post-wedding dinner.  I spent the whole evening with my hand in my pocket or under a napkin, worried that someone would think the honeymoon didn’t go so well.  No one asked.

Anyway, I spent the whole day at work with the same general sense of unease and a definite decline in my typing speed.  What if someone on staff saw the ring missing and assumed there was trouble at home?  Or what if they figured I was announcing I was a cheatin’ cur, and tried to “break off a piece of sugar” in the supply room? That would be awful.  Just awful.  Far too awful to even spend 20 minutes thinking about.

In the end, though, I made it home without any untoward happenings.  No one gasped and picked up the phone to page Susie a 9-1-1. And I was safe at the cafe I went to that evening for a performance by Patti Rayne, as the audience was about 40 women to 3 men.  (The guys left together.)

As soon as I got home, I looked around for the jeans and found them under the bed. I did a little jig when the ring was safely back on the finger.

Ironically, the very next day, Susie and I went to go see a preview screening of the next Lord of the Ring movie. I kept thinking “Frodo, you lucky bastard.”



 
 

 

Previous entry:
Three quick things

Next entry:
Brand New Aphorisms

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email: (optional)


URL: (optional)


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2024 Mar 29

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)