nope. don't give up hope. Also say this little prayer to St. Anthony. He is the Catholic saint of lost items. He will help you find it. And, like with the leprechauns, you don't need to be Catholic. Just promise him a dollar to feed the poor--and you can either use it to buy food for the 'food box' in your area, or PM me and I'll send you the address to St. Anthony's food for the poor.
"Dear St. Anthony,
please come around.
Something is lost and cannot
be found."
My mothers 'saint' (we all have one in the family that we are esp. close to) is St. Anthony and let me tell you, she is praying to him constantly. One year in early December, my mother was writing out her Christmas cards and could not find her address book. Now, this book is one she had for over 30 years--and it was ALWAYS kept in one spot. If anyone borrowed her book---she was like a hawk over you to make sure it was put back in the EXACT spot. So, imagine her upset when she had all these cards to mail out and she couldn't find that address book!
So, she began to pray to St. Anthony and promised him $20.00 for it--a nice tidy sum there, she thought--"he is sure to help her find it quickly!" Well, she continued to look for it for hours that day-tearing the house apart and getting in quite a nasty mood as it was NOT panning out. My father was trying to be invisible and sitting very quiet and still in the living room for fear of her wrath--it was getting that bad.
My mother even was on the floor looking UNDER furniture, and er...cursing St. Anthony for not helping her (it was a few hours into the search)--when all of a sudden, the china hutch's doors (which closes very tightly) literally flew open, and the book came flying out of it and hit her in the back of her head!
My father saw the whole thing. He was never quite really a believer--but he saw it with his own eyes and couldn't help but to laugh and tell my mother, "well
that ought to teach you to not curse St. Anthony!"
He did get his money--and everyone in the family and close to us heard of this incredible "find" story and of course how St. Anthony got her back for cursing him!
so, the moral of the story is really--just keep looking. don't give up hope! You'll find it!