Lost and found department

I went crazy over losing a certain necklace.

I bought it with Diane at one of our favorite stores, Limited Editions, in Newton Highlands near her house. It was right after the presidential election. She bought a necklace also. Feeling slightly goofy, we called them our Obama necklaces. They were a little bit expensive, but we were in a celebratory mood. Instead of a chain, mine has tiny stones and a pendant made of two stones, a smaller on top of a larger. I forgot what they are, but one is clear and the other is a cloudy grey.

When I left Diane's house to come back home, I left some jewelry on a dresser, figuring I'd pack it up next time. I remember thinking I had left two necklaces, one of them the "Obama" necklace. But when my brother-in-law packed it all up and gave it to me in a baggie, the Obama necklace wasn't there.

I got that feeling you get when you can't find something (like car keys) and you are SURE you left them in one spot but they are not there. I really wanted to find that necklace, although I did know that I have probably too many necklaces already and only one neck. I asked Diane over and over again to search areas of her house where in might have gotten lost. She said repeatedly that she just couldn't find it, and it would turn up in a bag or a pouch somewhere.

Last week, I went to the store to see if they had another. They said they weren't even sure what it was, and that they had only had one for sale anyway.

A while ago, I wrote about a similar problem with a "missing" bracelet that I found in my room. I was doing some yoga and stretching when it popped into my mind where it might be.

Well, yesterday I was doing the same yoga and stretching when an idea popped into my mind. I wondered if the bracelet was in a dresser drawer where I hadn't looked. I got up, opened the drawer, and put my hand on a red jewelry pouch. The "lost" necklace was in it.

Naturally, I called Diane and apologized. I also have to draw the same moral that I did with the bracelet: If you let something go a little, as happened when I was doing yoga, answers will come more easily than if you search too hard.

Speaking of losing things, my friend Vytas sent me a funny e-mail called "Questions and Answers from an AARP Forum." Here's one that I related to. Q: Where should 60-plus year olds look for eyeglasses? A: On their foreheads.

I'm not 60 yet, but I constantly lose my glasses. In the hospital I was always looking for them after I took them off for one test or another. Diane bought me one of those beaded necklace things that attach to the glasses so they're always around your neck when not in use, but I kind of forgot to wear it.

Without the glasses, I can't see well enough to find them, so I often walk around patting areas or getting one of the kids to find them for me. I told Vytas I just came up with a system. I put the dark-rimmed ones down on something light, and I put the ones with the thinner wire rims down on something dark, so the contrast helps me see them. Of course it didn't help today when  I put the glasses down on the bed and then took off the dress I wore to the clinic and laid it on top of them.

Today's clinic visit was relatively short. My platelets were 15, hematocrit 31 (up one from last time all on its own) and my white count was 5.7 (normal). I got a bag of platelets that Diane had donated. Dr. Alyea came by and said he was pleased that I had held on to a good amount of platelets over the weekend, and that my counts looked pretty good. I'm not sure if I have to go back this week or if I can wait until next week; I'll talk to Melissa about it tomorrow.