My Wedding Ring

Over the years, I have been asked many times why I don't wear a wedding ring.  It's not because I don't like rings, though I don't love them.  It's not because I want to pretend that I am single when I am not around my wife, despite what Lori may secretly believe.  It's because my wedding ring no longer fits.

I don't remember when I got too fat for my wedding ring.  But, like most things, I would guess that it happened somewhere around 15 years ago.  The only good thing is that I realized I was getting too fat and took it off before it got stuck on my stubby little finger!  I went several years without it.   I kept telling myself that I would lose the weight and that I didn't need to resize the ring or purchase a new one.  But, that never happened. 

After a few years, I finally broke down and bought a cheap silver band while we were at a basketball tournament in Arizona.  Not sure the reason, because I really only wanted to wear my original ring.  I imagine that it was to ease Lori's mind and assure her that the hotties were not trying to steal her man... and here I thought the fact that I was getting fatter, older and balder was already taking care of that problem and was assuring enough! 

Well, in a bit of irony, I immediately started to lose weight shortly after buying the band.  It ended up being fairly loose only a couple of months after I got it.  I can't remember how long I had it... probably less than two years.  But, I do know that it fell off plenty of times and I was always looking for it.  Sometimes it would fall off in gloves.  A lot of times it would fall off in bed.  One morning I woke up with perfectly round red marks all over my back in random places.  Lori and Kelsea were looking at my back with some concern and kept mentioning the possibility of ringworm.  I was horrified.  Shortly after, I found my ring in the bed and realized that it was indeed ring-related, but not a worm!  The ring perfectly matched those red marks.  Finally, it fell off and I couldn't find it anywhere.  So, I was ring-less once again.

No big deal though.  I was losing weight now, right?  Well, I did lose enough to make that other band not fit but not enough to get in to my real wedding ring.  And then, I started to put on the pounds once again. 

I have always wanted to get that ring back on to my finger despite any doubt Lori might have.  But, I mostly wanted to get it back on because I knew it meant a lot to her.  Well, somewhere lost in this journey was the fact that I was getting dangerously close to having my ring fit again.  Lori never mentioned it.  I think she may have actually given up on that ever happening again.  But, it hit me several weeks ago.  So, I tried it on and it was closer.  Couldn't get it over my knuckle, but it was closer.

Last week, I pulled it out again.  It now went over the knuckle.  Not horribly tight.  But, tight enough to make me uncomfortable.  So, back in the drawer it went.  But, it is now probably about 10 pounds away from fitting comfortable.  This is one of the things on my "fat list"...  a list of all of the things I could do, wear, buy, etc. once I lost weight, and a topic for another day.  Well, Lori, I promised you that I would one day wear it again and that day is soon.

While I hope I never lose this ring, I do hope that I lose enough weight that even that ring eventually has a hard time staying on my finger!  Here's to continually being reminded (and surprised) by all of the reasons I wanted to lose weight in the first place...