I wear a lot of the beads but most of my wardrobe doesn't lend itself to showing them off. I wish I were the elegant type that could just put on a black sheath and a great necklace and look terrific. I'm a rumpled type. Things get untucked, hems get crooked, shoulders slip. I just can't ever get it right. But I do have a few favorite strings that go with simple sweaters, when the weather is right.

I have always had an aversion to piercing (wouldn't take Alice but told her she could have her ears done if I didn't have to go; she went out of state!). Tried clip on earrings but they hurt too much. I love rings and sometimes put on several, but then I forget again for years on end.

Bracelets usually get caught on things. I'm a lot clumsier in real life than I like to think. I had a beautiful 18 carat gold ring with a large sapphire as an engagement ring--we found it at a gun show at the Pomona fair grounds and then had simple gold bands made to match. But I closed my hand in the car door and lost the stone. We combed the parking lot and never found it. I think it must have shattered. So I had an opal set in it because we had one lying around, but I knocked that against the refrigerator and popped it out, too. Just too big a profile, I guess. 'Fingers and Toes...' whenever my last husband was getting ready to shut the door for me in the car. I have been known to close the door on my own foot, getting in, in such a hurry.