Dear Wigleaf,

When I went home this Christmas, my dad passed on to me a ring from my grandmother, who he saw in Russia recently. The ring has a gold band and an oval amber stone. There is a dark fleck inside the amber—like a little flea. My grandmother bought the ring while studying in Leningrad. She promised it to my mom when she gave birth to a child, but then never gifted it to her. I got it, skipping a generation.

Returning to Houston, I wore the ring to a New Year's party. After the party, my boyfriend and I jumped into a car with my friend to go to another bar. My friend drove erratically on the freeway in the rain as I tried to buckle in the back seat with an old seatbelt that didn't stretch properly. This would be a dumbass way to die, I thought. When we got to the bar, it was two minutes till close. I realized my ring was gone. Did I lose it at the party? The car? Or, God, in the Uber we took to the party? My boyfriend consoled me as our friend drove off. There's a Russian superstition that how you spend New Year's Eve determines your whole year—what did it mean to lose the ring?

My friend found it two days later. It had been in his car, of course. Tell me, what kind of omen is that for the coming year?