I am creepy

Ok, I have a weird confession. You know how when you were a little kid and you found something that someone else had lost, how it was sooo fascinating? I don't know why, but random Happy Meal toys, necklaces, pens, whatever were just so exciting to find on the playground or in a parking lot or wherever. I always wanted to take random refuse from the streets home with me. I don't know, maybe that was just me who did that?

Either way, I was always promptly told to put whatever I had found back, as:

1. "you don't know who had that last"
2. "Whoever lost it might come back for it and be sad that you took it."

I remember one time in Hawaii, when I was about six or seven, I found a little coin purse with a 10 dollar bill in it. It was one of my biggest moral battles to turn in into the counter at the store instead of keeping it, (not so much for the money but for the novelty of the little leather purse) but my conscience prevailed. Ever since that phase of my life, I have been a big believer in turning things into the lost and found, however hard it may be.


Anyway, I did something really odd today that made me doubt my convictions altogether. I was walking to class, quickly because I had left work a little later than I meant to, as usual, and something shiny caught my eye on the ground by a recycling bin. It was a large, rather hideous hoop earring that said "Love" on it in fake diamonds. Not the sort of thing that I would ever consider wearing, even if I decided to go pirate and wear just one hoop earring. (Melissa Smith, maybe it could go with your "pirate" shirt? Let me know if you are interested.)

Anyways, for some strange reason, after passing it I turned back, bent down and picked it up, hurriedly shoving it in my backpack's side pocket. Why? I don't know. For one thing, I don't know who had it last, what if they come back for it and they (hopefully "she") is sad that I took it, and why the heck would I want one tacky earring???? All I can think of was that it was my little childhood klepto resurfacing, in the oddest way (and also an animal-like love of shinny things could have factored into it). Guard your earrings girls, Claire's on the loose.

I told Dave about it and he agreed that it was kind of really weird that I did that. To make it less weird, we made it into a car decoration/possible functioning dream-catcher, and it currently is residing happily in our XTerra:

So, if anyone out there is missing this earring, please forgive me for, first, stealing it because of repressed childhood feelings, and second, for calling it tacky. Then, let me know and I will give it back to you.

P.S. the even weirder part is that RIGHT after I saw the earring I saw a deserted ipod on the ground and I would never even think about taking that. Because that would be wrong, but this was ok?