When All We Can Do is Laugh

By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

Two weeks ago, I co-directed the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writer’s Conference in North Carolina. Edie Melson and I worked hard all year with our assistants to ensure conferees and faculty valued the conference. We enjoyed a spectacular week.

But two weeks before, everything seemed to head downhill.

Speaking events and book signings are fun. But at a recent event when I glanced down at my wedding ring, and a hole stared back at me, my enthusiasm turned to horror. My ring looked like it had a cavity. Not just a cavity but the diamond had been extracted. Husband and I searched the event center and our home for hours. We gave up and filed an insurance claim. The next day we took a drive to purchase a $12.00 amazingly realistic substitute from Charming Charlie until we could replace the diamond. By the end of the conference, my finger had turned green. I smiled.
Some emails, phone calls, and texts are not always appreciated. The night before we were to fly to Charlotte, NC, we were notified that my credit card had been compromised. The company immediately cancelled it and we made arrangements to have the replacement card sent to the conference. I giggled like a girl.
We flew into Charlotte with a two hour drive to the conference center. Husband’s luggage arrived, mine didn’t. I suppose the folks in Houston forgot to put it on the plane. I did what any smart women would do—stopped at Walmart and bought a few essentials. I tried not to think about standing in front of 475 people the next day in the same clothes I’d worn the day before. Yeah, I laughed.

My airline received my luggage from Houston in Charlotte and transferred them to another airline so they could arrive in the Asheville, NC airport, a 45 minute drive from the conference center. Husband made a midnight run to ensure his bride had clothes to wear the next day.
The new credit card arrived at the conference center on Monday. I now had my plastic back so I could buy a cup of coffee at Clouds.
We returned to Houston and purchased a new replacement diamond. Gorgeous. One week after we returned home, I did a speaking event in Shreveport, LA. The director needed some tape. Husband dug deep into our supplies and pulled out a roll of packing tape. My lost diamond was attached.