Day 259/365 - I'm All Ears

For this week's self-portrait we have my left ear. The only difference between it and my right ear is the fact that it's double-pierced, although it is a bit hard to tell that from this shot. I stopped wearing my earrings a couple years back and now my holes have partly closed up. I didn't want to be that old guy trying too hard to be hip, so I decided it was time to let go of the earrings.

I got the first hole pierced when I was a freshman in college. I was out at the mall with my Mom and one of my sisters when I mentioned that I thought it would be cool to have a pierced ear and my Mom said she'd pay for it if I really wanted to get it done, so I took her up on her offer. After I got home though I was worried that my Pops wouldn't approve so I took the stud out. It bled like crazy. When my Pops found out, he said he didn't care whether I got it pierced or not; it was my ear and as far as he was concerned I could do what I wanted with it.

So then I dug my stud out of the trash and went to put it back in, but I couldn't manage to find the backside of the hole. After trying for a while with no success, I just said 'hell with it' and pushed it through. I got the second hole pierced when I was hanging out with some friends while I was on leave during my first year in the Navy. There was no drama or angst associated with that one.

For several years I wore two silver hoops in my ear that were almost the circumference of a quarter. I did (and do) want to be a pirate, after all. Then after a few years of work at my current gig I decided it was time to bling things up a bit so I bought myself a set of diamond studs. I got a couple years use out of them before I gave up on the earrings thing. Now they're just sitting in my dresser drawer collecting dust.

Maybe if I ever have a daughter I can hand them down to her. It's kind of an odd hand-me-down to get from your father, but what girl or woman can say 'no' to diamonds?

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)