$2000 Rings and $26 Martinis

Well, I finally have my ring! And I found it at the first place we looked--Silverscape Design in Northampton.

It was kind of a strange day at first. We met our friend and Scott's co-worker, Wendy, at the Lauren Greenfield "Thin" and "Girl Culture" exhibit at the Smith museum. If you have never seen it and you have tendencies toward melancholia, don't. God, it was depressing--row after row of dead-eyed, prematurely old teenage girls and women with protruding bones staring out at you. There were a few examples of women who binged were obese as a result, but the focus was on the emaciated. Don't get me wrong, I support what Greenfield is doing, but there's not really much to say or debate after you see this exhibit. Reading the comments from the public was interesting, though--some truly boneheaded statements: "If they're stupid enough to do this to themselves, they deserve it," and "They just need to eat and stop doing this to their families!" I just do not understand how anyone viewing this exhibit could ever see an eating disorder as a choice.

After we saw the exhibit and some of the other pieces at the museum ( I love the top floor with all of the really old portrait paintings) we were faced with a dilemma. We were meeting up with Wendy's wife, Erin, for drinks and dinner, but we also had to shop for rings. I had found out that day that Scott had not told anyone at his work about the engagement, so we had to tell Erin and Wendy as we stood on the sidewalk across the street from the jewelry store. Then Scott took off for the record store (I can't blame him for that--there are great record stores in Noho) and Wendy and Erin went with me.

I actually wanted a ring kind of like Wendy's (white gold, simple but elegant, with a line of tiny diamonds) but those rings didn't look that great on my hand, and I tried on this one ring that looked like vines and loved it. Then I tried on a bunch more, and kept going back to the vine ring, so that's what I went with. I particularly liked that it was designed by a local artist from Amherst, Constance Gildea. By that time Scott had arrived and we bought the ring, and the saleslady was sort of taken aback that I gave her my credit/debit card to pay for it. I explained that it was a shared account (looking back, did I really owe her an explanation?) and Wendy's response was : "We never got asked that," and "What? This is Northampton!!"

Scott tried on a bunch of men's rings that were all around $2000, but he is determined to find one he likes for $200. He just might--with all that access to antique stores and such. As long as it fits and doesn't cut off circulation or turn his finger green, he's fine. But it sometimes takes as much as 6 weeks to size a ring, so he needs to get on it. We're going to try this place in Brattleboro (also next to a record store) that has tungsten rings for $125.

Afterward we went to a bar in an underground tunnel that has a martini that costs $26 (I realize that this is commonplace in cities, but come on!) and I had to endure the indignity of getting a martini off of the "easy does it" candy-flavored martini menu while everyone else ordered things like 12 year old scotch and "dirty" martinis with extra olives.

Speaking of scotch and martinis, we are now thinking about renting a function room on land for two hours after the ceremony/reception (so from 10:30-12:30) maybe at Patricks' Pub in Gilford, only a couple of miles from the boat and a straight drive along the water. I am also seriously considering wearing the pink dress to the Duluth reception and getting an ivory dress for the one in NH. I'll still go with tea length in both cases. I'm not even going to get started on shoes.