My first pair of dangly earrings

One of the paramount moments in becoming a "big girl" was getting my ears pierced before going to kindergarten. Second to that was getting my first pair of dangly earrings.

As somewhat of an ostentatious child, I liked to draw attention to myself (middle child syndrome) so in attempts to highlight the specialty of my dangly earrings, I cleverly hid one each day in the climbers. This was clever on two fronts: 1) that I got attention and 2) that I got a little more time in the climbers which was the Holy Grail of Miss Maynard's class.

The guardian of the climbers was none other than Kermit the Frog. When Kermit was climbing, no one else was. Strange really that I was able to make amends with him so many years after this most hurtful betrayal. As it were, I used to hide an earring daily on the climbers after Kermit had taken his post. After a few minutes on the rug with the class, I'd "discover" my missing earring and get permission to go find it.

This one fateful day, however, my earring was not where I had left it. My fictitious search had borne an actual panicked hunt for my beloved dangly earring. Kermit laughed at me the whole time. Try as I did, I never found that earring, but I did learn a good lesson on lying and showing off.

I suppose I have Kermit to thank for that.

Stupid frog.