Of Earrings and Differences by Bonnie Le Hamilton

Last week, Konnie posted about not having pierced ears anymore and switching to magnetic earrings. Not a problem, right?

Wrong!

As some of you might remember, I posted a while back about an incident in high school when I told some friend how to tell if they were speaking to Konnie or me. Back then, I told them if they say hi and I answer, it’s me, if I ignore them, it’s Konnie.

In high school, neither of us had pierced ears.

I was in fact quite stunned when she arrived to see me for our birthday while I was working for the summer in Grand Teton National park and she had pierced ears!

After a while, I got used to her having pierced ears, then eventually realized those earrings made it easier to tell us apart. I started mentioning it to others as a way to tell us apart.

That isn’t to say that people actually paid attention to that difference. Our father only started to be able to tell us apart by which man we were with.

I believe I have mentioned more than once the huge difference between Tom (my husband) and Jerry (her husband). Though of course when our children came along, he could tell by the kids as well. As I had one kid before she even got married and two boys before I had my first daughter, Konnie started with girls, three of them before getting her two boys.

Even so, I did try to point out my lack of piercings to illustrate that I was not Konnie. I guess in a way, I found this difference unique enough that I actually used it in one of my incomplete stories. This story has a set of identical twin sisters in it, but one of them (the married one) has pierced ears and the other one doesn’t.

Of course, in that story the other one, the female lead, doesn’t have a wedding ring or a passel full of kids, but still, she didn’t have pierced ears! I even have her tell the male lead to tell them apart by who has pierced ears. In the story he countered that she could get her ear pierced someday, to which she promised that wasn’t happening.

Yeah, I never really thought it through all that well. The one does have a wedding ring and the other one doesn’t, but well, Konnie and I both have wedding rings. And it’s a whole lot easier to mention the ears than to describe the differences in our wedding bands.

And before any of you ask, I’ll be sixty-three in less than two weeks – I am not getting my ears pierced ever!

I might also point out that our glasses are different. They have actually never been identical. From the first pair we ever got, we never chose identical glasses. I can think of once or twice when we didn’t get them at the same time or place, and accidentally ended up with similar frames (similar, not identical), but in those cases, we lived hundreds of miles apart, so it didn’t really matter.

I can assure you that while we occasionally dressed alike or similar growing up, it was always because someone else provided us with those clothes. Given a choice we never dressed alike, and we do have different tastes in clothes. I assure you, now that we buy our own clothes, we have nothing identical to wear.

But we are still back to, I used to be the only one without pierced ears. Now, how do people tell us apart?

Well, let’s see, except for my cat (who’s sixth birthday was this past Sunday) I live alone. I’m a widow. Konnie clearly is not. She also clearly doesn’t live alone. She doesn’t even have an empty nest!

I have a cat. She has dogs.

I pay rent on an apartment. She pays a mortgage on her house.

She spent most or a good portion of her life working outside the home. I spent most of my life as a housewife.

Looks and similar voices are not the entirety of our existence. By the way, she is a soprano, and I am an alto. I promise.

Then again, we both write and do handcrafts, mostly all the same ones, but not completely because I do beading and she doesn’t. Of course, one genre she writes is fantasy. I do not write fantasy.

Heck, I have barely even read Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson. I’m just not as into fantasy as she is.

I have one WIP, which is speculative fiction. She hasn’t attempted that genre yet. Who knows, maybe one day she will, but I doubt I’ll ever write fantasy.

Anyway, happy writing, everyone!

Of Piercings and Magnets by Konnie Enos

Not too long ago I saw something online about ear piercings closing, even after decades of wearing them, if the earrings were out for more than a few hours.

There were multiple reasons given including reacting to the metal used or the method of piercing. Apparently, there is a difference between the piercing equipment used in most places that pierce ears and tattoo parlors. For whatever reason, the equipment tattoo parlors use is more effective at making permanent holes. Another option was really good at healing.

The reason this caught my attention is because I have always had issues with my piercings closing over if I didn’t keep my earrings in other than cleaning and changing them.

I couldn’t tell you why as all the reasons given could fit.

I have never been to a tattoo parlor.

I am hypersensitive to some things, and I’ve always had to use hypoallergenic earrings, even then my ears can get irritated now and again.

Since they can close within a couple of weeks, it could be really good healing.

I originally got my ears pierced as a young adult. I’d thought about it for years but had never gone through with it until after I’d spent a year at college and a clueless roommate gifted me a set of earrings without noticing I didn’t have pierced ears. By the time I went through with it, I’d lost those tiny earrings.

After I married and became pregnant with my first daughter, hubby and I were discussing weather or not to pierce the ears of our daughters. He was opposed to ever doing it. I pointed out that I had pierced ears so we could not tell them no period. We compromised with having them wait until they were old enough to take care of them themselves.

Sometime after this I went through an extended period where I didn’t wear my earrings only to discover that my holes closed and I could no longer wear them. I eventually had my ears re-pierced. That event would have been over three decades ago.

For the last few years, I’ve noticed that getting my earrings back on after cleanings was not easy, mostly because I could never find the holes, but also because I found it difficult to get those tiny backs in the correct position. I began relying on my daughter to put them back in.

Then this year, I started having difficulty even getting them off. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the backs off. So, whenever I needed to clean my ears I needed my daughter’s help to get them off, clean them thoroughly, then put them back.

Finally, a few months ago, I began having issues with just wearing my earrings. My lobes just always hurt but cleaning them yet again did not help. What did help was leaving them out for a while. I got in the habit of leaving them off for a few days at a time.

The issue could be me reacting to the metal, or it could be my headphones because I had the most issues when I was wearing them, which I do most days.

Because of my schedule, I was at least wearing them on weekends.

Than two and half weeks ago I took them out, but for one reason or another I did not go anywhere, not even to church, and did not put them back in.

Yes, one hole is already completely closed and the other is almost so.

I went to church this last Sunday without earrings.

Now, of course, I was already tired of wearing earrings all the time between my headphones hitting them, and needing so much help from my daughter just to wear them it was no longer appealing to me. I started researching options that did not include the sometimes painful clip-ons of my younger years.

In the process of looking for options, I found something amazing. Magnetic earrings.

Several years ago, because of similar issues with needing my daughter’s help to wear any of my necklaces, I either added extensions to my chains so that I could slip them over my head, and/or I added magnetic closures to them.  I can now deal with my necklaces on my own.

So, after thought and investigation, I got me some magnetic earrings.

They are easy to put on, and just as easy to remove. While I can feel them, they don’t pinch as much as the old clip-ons did.

The one drawback is the selection of magnetic earrings does not seem to be as complete as that of clip-on earrings. And admittedly clip-ons do not have the selection and variety that pierced earrings do. But at least they are available.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.