I remember embarrassingly explaining to friends where we now lived... "Yea, we moved into a Condo, the ones on the hill...you know the ones with blue doors..."
"Oh, those ones!"
In my teenage mind I hated the Condominium manager, I imagined that he had a budget to paint the doors... found a huge surplus of clearance paint at Home Depot, and used the remaining monies at Angels on the OTHER side of the railroad track. Thanks buddy, for making my teenagehood all that more miserable!
The Ring.
So one bored night, one of many I must say... My brother, Ryan and I ventured down to the lower half of our Blue Door community to use the work out room. I'm pretty sure my intent wasn't about working out, but rather I hoped I'd meet some kids my age. I went to school 20 miles away, so I didn't have any friends around.
After a few minutes of attempting to use the machinery, disappointed that it wasn't swarmed with cute boys, I looked down and just happened to find a ring on the floor. There was no one else there, and I knew I couldn't trust the next person to return it.
When we got home I told my mom what I had found, she immediately told me to take it to the management office.
Yeah riiiiiiiight...
Obviously my mom didn't know how the world works... Why would I take this ring to the office...so the stupid clearance blue paint guy could take it home? He'd probably pawn it for $25 and spend it at aforementioned Angels, on the WRONG side of the tracks.
So, I did what I thought was best... I made a sign, something like... "Have you lost a piece of jewelry? Call 909-555-5555 to identify" A few days later, I remember distinctly my mom asking if I had in fact given the ring to the management office, I lied and told her I had.
I honestly believed I needed to get it back to its owner myself, I didn't trust anyone else. Besides, looking back... I probably was hoping that this girl would call, be so thankful I had found her ring and returned it and we'd end up best friends.
No one ever called.
This ring HAD to get back to its owner, it wasn't just a ring, it was a CLASS RING. 10 kt Gold, light blue gem, six small diamonds... 1997, Centennial High, engraved with "Stacie Sxxxxxx. My search began...
I had searched a million times, Myspace.com, Classmates.com, Zabasearch.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo.com, etc. etc. etc. I made a faux profile on Classmates, one for a school I hadn't gone to. I was desperate to return the ring. I joined the Myspace group for her school, I even tracked down people that had known her... I considered contacting the school but I never got very far, until today.
It took more than ten years, but today I found the ring's owner.
I found her on Facebook...but only after getting an alert that she had joined Classmates.com. I couldn't contact her via Classmates without joining and paying some crazy fee to do so. But I did have a new piece of the puzzle...her married name. Instantly I punched it in Facebook, no luck... I tried Myspace... No luck... Then I did a general search on Google. HIT. She hyphenated her name... I found her AND a link to her Facebook. I immediately sent her a message, to make sure she was the right "Stacie S."
Stacie responded, she did in fact attend Centennial High in Corona, California... Class of 1997...
I've probably spent a collective 20 hours searching for her in the past ten years. The ring went with me when I moved to Los Angeles, and then here to Hawaii.
Its got one more move to make...back to its owner, after so many years...
P.S. Mom, are you mad?
UPDATE: The Ring is enroute to Nebraska as of 10/27/09. Too cool...
