12/27/2012

Well, it’s been a shit day at work so far. We in the Online Department are on the Service Representative split again and I really forgot how ANGRY those members are ALL THE TIME! It’s so much worse than I remember. I have so quickly gotten used to the new workload with Online that I hate, hate, hate being on the Service phone line now!

Anyway.

Andy referred to me as his girlfriend in my hearing for the first time yesterday.

I know it’s just a small thing. It doesn’t change anything really, and it’s sort of silly, but it made me feel really good. More solid somehow. Like our relationship is no longer on the brink of being too quiet and awkward to work.

So things are going well! I’m really happy! Christmas is such a terribly stressful time for me, but according to everyone I didn’t pretty well this year. I can’t complain, for sure.

My ears are killing me. I’m trying to skip a gauge between earring sizes and it’s the worst ever. It’s going to take so long, especially my left ear because it goes instantly sore whenever I put an earring anywhere near it. I’m jumping, I believe, from ten gauge to six gauge, or trying to. My ears are going to be two different sizes for a while because my left ear takes longer to stretch. I have one broken eight gauge that I’m currently wearing in my left ear. I think I’ll probably need to keep it in for a week or more before I put the six gauge in. That will give it time to heal and stretch properly. I think I may have torn it a bit when I got overzealous about my newest earrings.

If you decide to stretch your ears keep in mind that the process is different for everyone. Some people can skip gauges in the beginning with no problem, while others have to wear every single gauge for two weeks or more before their ears adjust and stretch properly. I am the type that should wear every single gauge for a while… but that’s mostly because I’m a huge baby when it comes to pain and even a little bit of throbbing makes me panic a bit.

I started with 14 gauge earrings, which is tiny, yet compared to a regular earring, is actually rather big. The 12 and 10 gauge jumps didn’t hurt at all, but the 14, when I first started stretching my ears, hurt quite a bit. It wasn’t a sharp pain, but that sort of throbbing pain that you can tolerate, but can’t ignore. If that makes sense. I did have a pair of wooden 8 gauge earrings, but I lost one, and snapped the other in half because I wore it in the shower and it got too brittle. I have the one that is snapped in half and am using it for my left ear right now. My right ear has the six gauge in it currently, but not all the way. It has a tapered end, so I can slowly stretch it over the course of several days until I can wear it properly. It’s throbbing a bit now tough and I’m wondering if I should just take a hot shower to loosen the skin and get it over with. I think I could do it with my right ear, but I’m no so sure about my left. Not right now anyway.

I will wear the 6 gauges for a good long while I think. It’s the perfect size for right now. I think going to a 4 gauge will be a bit too big for me, though I will eventually try it out I think.

Gauged earrings don’t necessarily need to be ‘fastened’ to your ears like regular earrings do, with the back and all that. They do fall out from time to time when you’ve been wearing the same size for a while, but mostly, because they are curved and you slide them through the piercing with a sort of looping motion, they generally stay in by themselves. You can get rubber o-rings to keep them on if you really want to, but I feel like that detracts from the beauty of gauged earrings and I don’t wear o-rings if I can help it.

I started wanting to stretch my ears shortly after I moved to San Diego because Lisa, my cousin’s girlfriend, is stretched to, I think 6 gauge, and she had this gorgeous pair of mother-of-pearl white earrings that I thought were really beautiful. That’s the main reason why I started stretching my ears. I think gauged earrings are so much more beautiful than regular earrings because a lot of them are carved into really interesting designs. Especially the wood and mother of pearl earrings. Just Google "gauged wood earrings’ and you’ll see what I mean. They are so lovely. You can also Google ‘gauged mother of pearl earrings’, which is how I got hooked on them. There are lots of fake gauged earrings that you could buy, but I don’t think I would ever do that (I just Googled ‘gauged mother of pearl earrings’, and most of them are fake gauges, where they have just regular earring studs in them.  Pretty much, you can get any of those styles in real gauges though).

I will update with a picture of the 6 gauge earrings I have when I get home. They are rather simple, but I think they are still pretty.

Personally, I am fond of feathers and wing designs.

Alrighty. Lunch time.