I lost my engagement ring in the football field

Sunday June 5th

What a perfect day to visit Appleby, my high school, where I've boarded for 4 years. Nic , Yui and I decided to go back and play some aerobi. After playing for a good 30 minutes, we decided to take a hike near the lake and trek back to our car near the health center. Whilst we were admiring the new arena and the nice photos that were put up. I felt the space between my third and fourth finger. NOTHING! I immediately looked at my left hand and saw my bare hand and said to Yui "Look at my hand!" Yui goes "What? Your hand is shaking?" Then I said "No, look at my hand my ring is gone" At that moment, he literally looked like he got the wind knocked out of him. He took a deep breath and sat down with his right hand on his head. (To be honest, I have never seen the man so beaten) Knowing the severity of the situation, to redirect his grief and to avoid him from taking in the situation, I suggested to go look for it immediately as my guess was that it must have came off during aerobi in the football field.

After 1 hour of scanning the field, no luck whatsoever. It was imminent that we needed to rent a metal detector.

Monday, June 6th
9:30am Milton Stephenson's

We should be glad that Milton had a metal detector because apparently, only 2 stores in toronto carried it and Waterloo was the other one. Whilst renting the equipment, the store lady asked us what we were looking for and we told her that we were looking for an engagement ring in a football field. Her face was semi-mortified and said "Oh noooo, good luck guys!" Yui said "We're gonna need it! But I'm sure we're gonna find it!" Store lady "That's the spirit! Stay positive!" By this time, my fear factor of the whole situation has risen to a 8 out of 10.

9:35 am Dollarama near the Stephenson's

We bought some yarn to divide the fields to sections. Basically the technique when archaeologists dig up ancient sites. I also had a genius idea to buy sun tan lotion because we'd be in the sun the whole day.

10:00am Appleby

Yui: It's school day isn't it?

Me: I hear it's review week.

Cue, kids in gym clothes running on to main field. Hence we decided to scan the trek to the lake and to the arena instead. But actually they started to play capture the flag, so a dozen of people came running through the woods. Kid goes " What are you looking for?" Yui" We lost some jewellery" Kid "Awwwww, I hope you find it. Good luck" And of course a couple more people asked the same question (including Don Stewart), from all the sympathetic looks that we've been getting, it's clear that we're pretty much in a very fucked up situation.

1:00pm Harvey's on Winston Churchill

What can I say, it just doesn't taste the same when you're moody and depressed.

6:00pm Appleby

Apparently football games are going on, so we had to take a break until tmr.

Needle in a Hay Sack or worse?
Finding a ring in a Football field.

Tuesday, June 7th

10:00am Appleby

It seems like we covered 1.5 quadrants out of 6. We would definitely need to pick up the pace. However we are bound to be more efficient. A couple of AC girls came up to us "We were just wondering what you were doing" Me "We lost some jewellery so we just using a metal detector to find it" Girls "What are the lines for?" Me "It's to segregate which areas that we covered and so on, just like how archeologist does it." Girls "Oh that's so cool" By this time, I'm feeling pretty damn smart and that our technique is flawless and that we've somehow inspired some young minds to pay more attention in history class

Noon

Lady with a chocolate lab: Hey guys may I ask what you are looking for?

Yui: We lost some jewellery

Lady: I hear that this area was a defense area 80 or 90 years ago, I was just wondering if you guys dug up anything interesting.

Yui: No we actually didn't dig up anything, because we knew what we were looking for is on the surface.

Me (Inside voice): OMG, if we do start digging, are we gonna dig up some bomb and get blown up like the guy in The English Patient.

2:00 Guidance Center

Met up with Ms Bysouth and she complimented on my my "nice tan" and asked how did it go. We still haven't found the ring yet. I told her that it is quite scary and I feel quite uneasy about it and she said "Oh like bad luck, like it's an omen for the marriage?" Me "Errrrr"

3:30 Car and 2-4-1 Pizza (Lunch Time)

This song came on the radio 103.5, and Yui sang along with it.

"Today I don't feel like doing anything....except for finding a ring in a giant football field..."

5:00 Back at the Field

Yui looks at the tanning lotion and goes "Eva, this stuff isn't Sun Block , it's a self tan lotion" Me in denial and disblief "No.. come on it has to be .." Yui reading the label "Only apply 2 times a week, self tanning. Warning this does not contain any sun block" Yes, we have been applying a self tanning lotion thinking that it was a sunblock for the entire two days. We actually manage to magnify our sun burn, not only that the scorching sun was burning us, now we were also enduring a slow chemical burn. Oh why, did I have 8 "re-applies" of lotion?

Knowing that the burning skin torture can be completely avoided, but it was just my stupidity.
Me to Yui: You go through a lot of extra crap when you're with me, don't you?

Yui laughs: Yes. I do...

6:30pm Main Field

Looks like there's more soccer today, I guess we'll wait until they kick us off but fortunately they weren't using the areas we were scanning.

8:30pm Main Field - After 18 hours, 16000 scans, 40 lanes plus discovery of 3 football cleats + a Penny

Me: Hey something's here, come check it out.

Scream. Victorious . Triumph

Things that I have learnt:

• When you want to avoid the "Awwww" sympathetic glare, use the term "Jewellery" instead of "A diamond engagement ring". Works most times I'd say...
• Never give up, even when you on 5th out of 6 quadrants of a football field
• AC Campus security needs some upkeep. Come on Harp! We were there for two days undisturbed. And Yui bumped into a dawn-like person in Walker House during Study Time and said Hi.
• Do NOT attempt ANY sport when wearing you're engagement ring
• Look twice at Sunblock labels. "Sunless" may not be a good enough visual cue for sunblock when the following words are associated with it. "Tinted Tanning Sunless"
• If a man searches for "Quote"jewellery"End Quote" with you through a football field whilst dying a slow painful death of 3rd degree sun+chemical burn and still haven't strangled you yet - MARRY HIM!