can you say "needle in a haystack"?

Some of you know about how my ring become, um, less than complete earlier this year. I recently had to explain the situation to a friend by email, so I thought I'd post the story for those of you who were out of the loop:

No no, I still have the ring. A while back, maybe at the beginning of February, one of the little diamonds on the side just up and left. I didn't realize that it was gone until I was on the phone with Gary, admiring my ring, when all of a sudden I noticed a big gap, like a kid who lost her front teeth. I gasped, Gary asked what was wrong, and I told him that a diamond was missing. At that point, he said, "WHAT DIAMOND?!?" Because I have a bad history with jewelry (having lost my aunt's engagement ring when she stupidly gave it to me when I was 11), he assumed the worst. He was mad for a second -- until I got all indignant and explained how it was totally and completely not my fault. So then he calmed down and told me not to worry about it because we could just replace it at the jeweler, probably for free.

But I was not about to lose a diamond and not try to look for it. So I got on my hands and knees, put my face up near the carpet, and sifted through the carpet with my fingers, hoping that a little diamond would pop out. Then I went to my car and did the same thing. I knew I probably wouldn't find it, but I couldn't help but think about how some little African boy worked long days to find that little thing and how pissed he would be if I didn't at least look. "C'mon, woman, you can at least try!" Needless to say, I didn't find it. I still have no idea where it is. We brought the ring back to the jeweler, who replaced the diamond but never gave me a satisfactory explanation about how a diamond could fall out. He ensured me that it wouldn't happen again, but you still see me, every few hours, checking my ring to make sure everything's there :)

Just for the record, that story is 100% true, no embellishment. This engagement is full of hi jinks. Just wait 'til you hear the full story about the proposal.

Oh, and by the way, only 24 hours of law school left, suckas!