When J and I got engaged, it took us a long time to pick out an engagement ring. We did lots of research and spent a good amount of time looking at rings and thinking about what we wanted. I'm pretty sure we spent several weeks perusing different jewelry stores and gathering information. In the end, we narrowed the choices down to maybe two or three different settings, and J picked out the final ring, along with the diamond. When we got married, he designed and commissioned two bands to go on either side of the engagement ring; the three pieces were were soldered together into one unique ring that I wore for several years.
When I got pregnant with B, I decided that I wanted a plain, smooth wedding band so that I wouldn't end up scratching the baby accidentally. For Christmas of 2004, two weeks before B was born, J gave me a plain gold wedding band that was perfect for what I wanted. I received that band the same Christmas as the now-defunct Ipod. At least I still have the wedding band, I guess...
A few years later, we were at our house in Houston, preparing to head down the street for a neighborhood festival. My girl was still a baby, B was maybe 2 and a half, and I was still wearing the plain gold band instead of my larger wedding ring. It was just easier in those days; the kiddos were still so little, and I hardly had time to think about what clothes I was going to wear, let alone jewelry. I wore very little jewelry in those days anyway, and tended to leave everything in my jewelry boxes on my dresser. As we left the house that day, I decided to leave the windows open in the house because it was one of those rare, nice days in Houston. Later that weekend, J realized that we were missing a photo printer in our bedroom. On the heels of that, we quickly realized someone had come through our bedroom windows while we were out, and had taken not only the printer but also my jewelry boxes. The only remaining piece of jewelry that I owned was the gold wedding band; the engagement ring and wedding bands were long gone, as were many other pieces of jewelry that had a great deal of sentimental value.
After hearing about the robbery, J's mom gave him the rings she had received from J's dad when they got married; she thought I might want to get the diamond reset into a new ring. J's parents divorced over 20 years ago, and his mom had put the ring away and quit wearing it after the divorce, so I guess it made sense to pass it along. We've been meaning to get the diamond reset for two solid years now, but things kept getting in the way - weekends were too busy, I was traveling too much, other things took priority, etc. Today, we finally set aside the time (well, J gets credit for orchestrating everything) to go to a local jewelry store and pick out a new setting.
It was such a different feeling, picking out a setting for a diamond this time around. When we picked one out the first time, we were in our early 20s. That ring was the most expensive item either of us had ever owned (except for our cars maybe), and spending a good chunk of change on a piece of jewelry was sobering. Not to mention that both of us were still in college at that point and our future wasn't anywhere close to being clear. No jobs were on the immediate horizon, our lives were still very much up in the air, and our bank accounts were not too far from 0. It was humbling and thrilling at the same time - it felt like such a grown up thing to do. This time around, the hardest thing about picking out a new setting was finding the time to go shopping. I guess maybe we've been grown ups long enough that the novelty has worn off...
I've never been one to wear a ton of jewelry, but I'm much more confident now about what I like and what I will be comfortable wearing. After about an hour or so, I had narrowed down my choices to maybe 3 or 4 different settings. As J and I were looking at one of my final choices, we noticed a little "S" on the side of one my favorites; it almost looked like filigree, but was definitely an S. J asked our saleslady if that could be changed, because really, the letter "S" has no meaning to either of us and wouldn't make sense on a ring. After she checked with one of the craftsmen, she said that it could indeed be removed or changed, joking that it could even be made into the number 8 if we wanted.
I probably should have just stopped right there, made my decision, and saved us all some time, instead of continuing to mull it over for the next half hour. After all, when your nickname has the number 8 in it, shouldn't you just take that as a sign and be done? The ring will be ready for pickup on Wednesday - I'm looking forward to wearing it.
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