Grrr.

Remember the saga of my earrings? Of course not. Pretend this is a link: http://journals.aol.com/nzforme/Sothisisatreadmill/entries/308

So, I got my ears re-pierced with teeny little gold ball piercing studs. I've been a good little girl and put the alcohol-based cleanser on morning and night. This weekend will make six weeks, and then I'll be allowed to wear any sort of post earring, and can stop making with the cleanser.

Wrong.

Last week, I got a facial. I don't do this often -- this is like the third facial I've gotten in my life. But my skin was looking particularly crappy so I thought I'd seek professional assistance. And, let's face it, the bit where they put all that goo all over your face is kinda fun, in an odd sort of way.

So, Nice Facial Lady puts the goo all over my face. And she isn't particularly tidy about it, so she also puts goo on my earlobe. I don't complain about it or anything, because I know she's gonna clean that crap right off. Which she does, although I don't get to a shower for a real good cleansing for another hour or so.

You can see it coming, right? Next day, the back of my earlobe feels weird. I cautiously remove the earring so I can get a better look at it (and it still takes two mirrors) but the skin back there is peeling, like I have sunburn or something. I peel off the peeling bit and reveal some very sensitive, very pink skin beneath. I replace the earring.

I keep using the alcohol cleanser, although I am of two minds about it -- I think it might be a good thing to keep the earring extra clean, but it also kinda hurts.

Two days go by. I want to check the progress of healing ('cause it feels all rough and peely again) so I take out the earring again. (Regardless of whether I put the cleanser on my lobe, I DEFINITELY want to keep the earring -- and the back -- very very clean, since I'm still wearing it while this heals).

So, you wanna know my next genius move? In putting the earring back in, I get the angle wrong -- rather than sending it through my nice, new, clean piercing, I aim it down what is apparently the old, closed-up path. I don't stick it in their particularly far, but since this is a pointy piercing stud, I draw blood.

Which means, near as I can tell, that I'm wearing this piercing stud for another few weeks.

Sonofa...