V-Day Disaster

I had an interesting Valentine's Day this year.  R and I took the opportunity to go to a jewelers to purchase my wedding band (actually, a solitaire enhancer) and a gift for me- diamond earrings.  Hooray!  He got me earrings a few years ago and I lost them.  How I managed to do that, I don't know exactly, but for the longest time I thought I would never hear the end of it.  I loved them and kept asking for replacements, but it seemed it was never going to happen.  Then a few months ago, R lost his cell phone.  He put it into his pocket one Saturday when E was still at UCLA.  The weather was nice, so he rode his motorcycle up to visit her.  When he arrived at the unit, he was expected to turn in his phone (a UCLA policy due to the prevalence of camera phones, to protect the privacy of patients in the facility).  He checked his pocket, and found that it was unzipped.  When he reached inside, the phone was missing.  It was a big deal- he is a man who doesn't lose things.  Heck, he notices if you move something an inch.  Nothing escapes him.  The fact that he somehow lost his phone was shocking, especially for him.  Happily, I think he came to the conclusion that it's possible to love something, to be responsible with it, and to lose it anyway.  The door was opened to the possibility of new earrings for me!

So in the middle of the day on a beautiful Valentine's Day we found ourselves indoors at the jeweler.  We'd been there before to look at the rings, so it only took a few minutes for me to choose the one that I wanted.  A few minutes after that, we'd chosen my earrings, and I was so ecstatic to have another pair that I asked to wear them out of the store.  The sales associate disappeared behind the counter to ring it all up.  Because we were purchasing a solitaire enhancer for my wedding band, the jeweler had both rings with her behind the counter (a diamond engagement ring basically tucks into a solitaire enhancer as if it is wearing a nice jacket.  These are also referred to as ring guards, ring wraps, etc.- there are many different styles but they all do basically the same thing, which is to add some "bling" to a basic solitaire). 

While we were waiting there behind the counter, it happened- the sales woman suddenly looked panicked and motioned to an associate for assistance.  They were speaking in hushed tones and began to duck down behind the counter.  What was going on?  Well, while ringing us up, the sales woman lifted up a piece of paper sitting on the counter, forgetting that  the rings were resting atop it.  The rings went airborne, and when they landed my solitaire of the past two plus years (the very ring R proposed with!) was nowhere to be found.  At first, we were patient.  As various associates disappeared behind the counter to provide assistance, we browsed the store.  As the minutes ticked by, we became incredulous- where could it have gone?  The space did not appear to be all that big, why hadn't it been located?  The store was hopping, so the associates couldn't help their colleague for long.  After quite a while (perhaps an hour?) R expressed frustration with one of the associates, who basically said, "Why don't you come back behind the counter and help look for it?"  So we did, which was surreal.  I'm sure the store management would not have been pleased, but there we were, on hands and knees in the cramped space, trying not to trip over one another.  It was almost like a game of Twister.  Soon it became clear why my ring could not be found- the pristine jewelry store was a mess behind the counter!  There were nooks and crannies all over the place, not to mention a small gap between the counter baseboard and the floor.  There were also channels for wires beside the cash register- the perfect place to lose something.  We took things apart, piece by piece, looking through drawers of tags and stacks of boxes, jars of pens and numerous dusty crevices.  We couldn't find it.  How much time passed- another hour?  I'm not sure, but it was long enough to leave us thoroughly discouraged.   At one point Alice (our associate) told us she had a similar ring at home, and she would bring it in and give it to me.  R was quick to respond, "Absolutely not!"

Finally, he'd had enough.  He turned to me and said, "We're leaving.  Give them back the earrings and let's go."  So I removed my Valentine's Day gift (from my earlobes!) and he took back his check.  We wrote down our phone number and Alice scrawled a note indicating she had lost my personal ring.  It was a strange, unsettling experience.  We walked out into the sunshine feeling disoriented.  R didn't want to give them our business until my ring had been located, but it was disappointing handing over the earrings.  My finger felt naked.  Neither of us was in the mood to do any more shopping, so we drove home.  R commented that he'd never gone to a store to make a purchase and left having lost something before.

Luckily, this bizarre experience had a happy ending-- after dinner that evening one of the associates called  to say that my ring had been found.  I had to work that night, but the next day was a holiday for R so we headed back to the store.  Boy was I happy to see my ring!  They gave us a discount on the enhancer and earrings for our troubles, so it all worked out in the end.