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Need Help Being Rational: Found earring in kitchen:

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Posted 12/3/2014 2:41 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Anxiety Friends,

Ok.....so.....I found an earring in my kitchen on the counter. I am a cleaning maniac, and so I know every little inch of the house. I know where the dust is, where the dust isn't. I am meticulous in my cleaning methods. I clean from top to bottom and get every little inch of dust out of the corners, window sills, etc..

I had just done a major cleaning yesterday, and tonight I had to take all kids grocery shopping with me because my husband has been sick. Well, when I get to the kitchen to unload all of the groceries, I see an earring on the counter. An earring that I have never seen before, and like I said, I am meticulous and I have cleaned every corner and inch of this house. There would be no where that this earring could have hid without me finding it. Yes, I am that good! :P

So I asked my oldest son if he put it there, because sometimes he picks up random objects at school. He said no. So I asked my husband if he found it somewhere and he said no. OK. WELCOME ANXIETY. Come on through the door. :-/ I am not one to let a mystery go unsolved. It's not an expensive earring. But how on earth did this earring get on the counter in my kitchen? My husband said, "Maybe I picked it up somewhere around the house and set it there...." Uh no you didn't, because I would have known it was in the house!

This is how my anxiety enters....through the door of the unknown. Now I am left to ponder all of the wild and crazy ideas of where on earth this earring came from......and my mind won't let it go until I have found the rightful owner of this earring and discovered how on earth it got into my kitchen.

Does anyone have any advice on how to be rational in times like these???? My natural response is not good or healthy and my mind rabbit trails to every terrible possibility.... :( I'm actually shaking right now...fun....NOT!

THANKS!!!!!!!!!
Posted 12/3/2014 2:56 AM (GMT 0)
I can imagine where your mind is going but your husband is sick... Little to no chance anyone came into your home while you were gone.

Maybe one of the guys (hubby & oldest son), did put it there & just don't remember. An earring is pretty inconsequential to most males. You sure your son did bring it home from school & doesn't remember or maybe thinks if he told you he did, he'd get in trouble?

I don't have any stellar advice bc like you, I know what belongs & doesn't in my home. I am not a meticulous (deep) cleaner but would notice something that doesn't belong & would want the mystery solved.

Maybe you could pray on it?

Ask your son in the morning (assuming he's in bed now), if he brought it home from school & just say if he did, it should go back bc some classmate might be missing it.

I'll pray for you ♥️
Lisa
Posted 12/3/2014 3:04 AM (GMT 0)
Totally not the correct answer but here goes:

Maybe its the reverse dryer syndrome? You know how the dryer always transports a sock into another dimension...well maybe the dish washer spit something back into our realm?

;-)
Just trying to lighten the mood.

TMA, I am sure this isn't anything to loose sleep over. Some rational answer will eventually surface.
Posted 12/3/2014 3:10 AM (GMT 0)
LISA! Thank you SOOO MUCH for your response. Man, I'm dying here! I am really trying to do this the "right" way, and don't want to go the unhealthy route and be pushy to my husband and son in order to jog their memories and tell me what on earth it's doing here......!

LOL.

I know one of them knows. It's either a matter of a memory lapse or a matter of hiding something. I'm just not sure which. First off, I am going to trust God in this situation as I know that is the only healthy way to be. But my mind is already going into investigation mode. I have a bad habit of becoming the BAD COP (from the good cop/bad cop scenario) when I am feeling anxious or threatened!

Oh man. Oh man.

I've already traced down at least 15 different scenarios of this earring's arrival to my kitchen! :/ EEEEEK!!! Not sure how to let it go and just go to sleep!!! :(
Posted 12/3/2014 3:12 AM (GMT 0)
Daesin!!! Oh my goodness! Thank you! I needed that laugh!!! I knew that dishwasher was up to something!!! :)

That's the thing, I can be soooo rational most of the time, and then something as simple as this happens and I get all "unrational??!!" Is that even a word!!??
Posted 12/3/2014 3:50 AM (GMT 0)
unrational works for me...drives my hubby nuts when I am though.

Its far too easy for little things to get in under our armor. The beach is gorgeous but get one grain of sand in you swimsuit and well, you know the rest.
Posted 12/3/2014 4:05 AM (GMT 0)
Well, THANK YOU so much for helping me to be rational guys! I feel like a new person now..... :D Before having anyone to share this kind of stuff with (other than my Christian counselor), my anxiety would take off like a rocket and I would have no way to "diffuse the anxiety bomb."

This may seem like a very small issue to some, but I feel like this was a BIG step for me......
Posted 12/3/2014 4:27 AM (GMT 0)
TMA,

You have more than one kiddo, right? Yet you only mention asking your oldest son about the earring...what about the others?

Did you have friends/company over recently? Sometimes we forget who has come and go through our house, who could've left something behind...

You just got back from traveling recently...this could have been a hitch hiker/stow-away that came back accidentally, and therefore you don't recognize it!

There are lots of reasons and explanations.:)

I do hope you find the answer though...I know I don't like loose ends either.

Let us know if you figure it out!

S.C.
Posted 12/3/2014 10:46 AM (GMT 0)
I've been guilty about obsessing over mysteries like this myself. For the past five days I haven't been able to find the leash I walk the dog with EVERY DAY....I always leave it in the same place but I have scoured the entire house and NOTHING....it's driving me nuts! As far as the earring is concerned, is there any possibility you might have picked it up accidentally at the grocery store...maybe someone dropped it at the checkout line and it stuck to your bag, then fell off on the counter when you got home. You could always bring it back to the store and see if anyone came looking for it. OK, so now I'm obsessing FOR you! Actually, you should probably just work on letting it go and realizing it was some sort of fluky thing that happened, but since I understand your obsessive need to "solve" everything, it might give you some comfort to do that.
Posted 12/3/2014 10:49 AM (GMT 0)
....and just to add....weird things happen like this all the time. We have to learn that we CANT be in control of every single aspect of our lives, no matter how much we try. And all it does is add to our overall anxiety. Letting go is an awfully hard thing to do but its something we need to work on every day.
Posted 12/3/2014 2:26 PM (GMT 0)
Don't fret TMA! I worry about stuff like that when it happens too. I think my worries stem from not being a very trusting person though. Have you had visitors recently? A cleaning lady? There are definitely a million ways that it could've ended up there. If you do have a cleaning lady, maybe she found it on the floor while cleaning and placed it there for you to find. That could be a long lost earring of a girlfriend of yours! :-)
Posted 12/3/2014 3:45 PM (GMT 0)
SC- My younger kids are a bit too short to reach the counter height, and so I am ruling them out based on their tiny sizes. :) LOL. I guess that it is not such a big deal, so I am just going to leave it sitting there on the counter until someone remembers or comes back to claim it. This is a big step for me, because I am not one to let it go.....ever... I am just going to trust God and give all of worries to him and know that I am not the one in control of this..... But I will let you guys know if I ever learn of this earrings arrival!

Andwes- Thank you so much for understanding what I'm going through! Obsessive thoughts are just what the problem is. It's a very bad habit that I picked up somewhere along the way. I'm way too detail oriented and it can be a blessing and a curse at the same time! It's so funny that one of my millions of ideas of where this earring came from was that perhaps it was stuck in a bag at the grocery store. LOL. I guess I do not have control over this situation --- because there are too many possibilities! I hope your dog leash turns up soon too!

Park- Well----I did have a friend and her daughters over the night before for a bit. And we had some nieces over to babysit about a week before that. So I guess those are possibilities as well. I checked with my friend and she said it was not hers... The earring looks kind of old too, like it is "well-worn." Nothing I would put in my ears, that's for sure! So strange. How does an earring just appear on my kitchen counter with no one knowing where it came from! Iyiyiyi..... Time to move on!
Posted 12/3/2014 4:26 PM (GMT 0)
Hey TMA, I totally understand you.
It's not fun to fall in the depths of such thoughts :/ I was there a couple of times myself.
But I am sure it is nothing mysterious, try to remember if some of your friends visited your house before, and maybe you missed a tiny object. It can really happen since we are mostly distracted by our anxiety.

Of course it's ok to think about every possibility, but try not to worry yourself over the things you have no solid proof about :)
Hope you manage to solve the case <3
Posted 12/3/2014 5:13 PM (GMT 0)
TMA

I haven't been able to come on here much as of lately. I am literally putting in 14 hour days. We moved offices and I am trying to get some of our operation and processes in place and fine-tuned. It's been rough!

I just had to respond to this, though! First of all, I had to smile just a 'wee bit' when I read your post as I thought it was cute (not to downplay the anxiety you are feeling over this). I think it is flippin' awesome that you clean house the way you do and are organized enough to know where everything is! I have always been a cleaner and I am a total neat freak by nature but due to my constant attention on the biz, I can't keep things the way I would like and it drives me insane! My wife doesn't clean - it's just who she is and I knew this when I married her. We have a house keeper that works 4-5 days a week but still doesn't deep-clean the way I want her to. Yes, I have a touch of OCD!

It's funny because I probably can't even locate a pencil without tearing all the drawers up in the house. Oh and when it comes time to finding the remote (every freakin' night too I might add), flip a coin because chances are that it has vanished! And when I do find it, without fail, someone (one of my lovely daughters) has taken the batteries out of it. So now I have to find the batteries - another treasure hunt! You get the picture!

OMG! If I had anxiety for all of the "unknown things" in my house I would instantly internally combust! As a matter of fact, there is a watch that has been sitting by my tv for a couple days that I have not the faintest clue of who's it is or where it came from! It looks like some cheap mens watch that you would buy at Wal-Mart. LOL - maybe I bought it the night I took all that ambien and just don't remember!

I wouldn't sweat it! That earring could have came from anywhere. I have actually been out in town have picked these things up from a parking lot where they was just laying there (thinking I have found a treasure). I would bring them back and ask my wife if they were worth anything and ofcourse they wasn't .

I hope this anxiety lets up soon for you. But it is so refreshing for me to see someone who is so 'clean freakish' and organized. I want to be just like you when I grow up! Ha!

Sending you healing thoughts my dear friend!

Cornell

Post Edited (Cornell) : 12/3/2014 10:19:59 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/3/2014 8:29 PM (GMT 0)
Cornell. Nothing made me laugh and smile more today than reading through your post. LOL. Internally combust. Walmart. Ambien. Remotes. Batteries. You are quite the character. Thankful for this laugh today.

Like seriously, how can I get so worked up over an earring! LOL.

Way too detail oriented here! Luckily husband thinks I am "magical" because of this. He's not a cleaner either (which I also "agreed to accept" before marriage), so when he misplaces his stuff, he comes to his "magical wife" to ask where it is. And I always know, without fail. I earn all sorts of brownie points because of this! And maybe a few Starbucks Lattes.

I am willing to bet that your office procedures are pretty meticulous though! Especially with those 14 hour days! ;)

Anyway, I'm mostly settled into the idea that this earring is no big deal, but hey, now I am just really hoping that someday you find some awesome treasure around town---please don't forget about all of your anxiety friends when you do! :P

Thanks again for the uplifting message. You're super.

Post Edited (TooMuchAnxiety) : 12/3/2014 1:37:54 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/3/2014 10:11 PM (GMT 0)
It's quite possible it got stuck on someone's shoe or in a bag and just got thoughtlessly 'put' on the counter...

It's amazing what sorts of schtuff we can pick up w/o realizing it.




M.
Posted 12/3/2014 11:22 PM (GMT 0)
Reminds me of the time I found a raw, un-popped popcorn kernel in my car. Not on the floor, either, it was in the console. No-one else had been in my car for weeks. I wondered and wondered. I hadn't had popcorn anywhere that month - not at the movies, not in the house, certainly not in the car.

Years, ago, yet from time to time I still think of it and wonder how the heck it came to be there!!!
Posted 12/4/2014 1:53 AM (GMT 0)
The earring is mine. Sorry. I wanted to feel pretty.

I've had a few instances at home like this, but I think it's a ghost. I hardly give it a second thought.

Let's summon the ghost of Robert Stack and get this mystery solved. Oh, right. It was my earring.
Posted 12/5/2014 12:08 AM (GMT 0)
Rrakma, Thank you SOOOO much for your understanding. I am glad to know that I'm not the only one who goes so deeply into thought over this stuff! At this time, I am convinced my son brought it home from school because of the look on his face... I'm not sure why he wouldn't just say it though! It's not like he'd be in trouble! :D

Merrida, Ya, sooooo many possibilities...!!!

Lynnwood, LOL! That sounds like so many things I have wondered about too! All of those unsolved mysteries of life. So silly, so strange!

Smooth, Yep... Ok.. I guess your secret is out now!!??!! Just kidding, but thank you for the laugh. :)
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