The man turned to me and demanded I show him the backs of my hands. Oh boy. Jewelry store employee or no, if you’re a girl that usually only means one thing.
“What!!!? No RING!!?? Are you running from love?” Well thank you. And will you be sharing your intimate personal details with me as well?
“Well sir, I’m still kind of….little.”
“Little?? Love has NOTHING to do with stature!”
“I mean….you know, I’m still pretty young”
He had a small fit when I told him my real age (and I was tempted to shave a few years off). I know, it’s the lipstick. It does tricky things to my youthful appearance.
“While you’re young (I’m glad we’d finally ditched the idea that I was a romantically failed middle aged woman) – run off and go places! Have adventures! Go off to Colorado Friday night and come back Sunday, that’s what my sister did with her friends. Then she got strapped into a toboggan and sent off down hill before she knew what had happened. Or – go to Cozumel!
"I was in Cozumel – have you heard of the wine squirters there? They wrap a towel around your shoulders and squirt wine in your mouth from fresh goat skins. We were there, watching all that, it was so crowded in there you couldn’t breathe – they were having to help people out into taxis.
I was saying something about being sunburned and the guy next to me threw his pants off, jumped up on the table wearing only his Speedo, and he was lobster. Lobster red!"
--------------------
It's not exactly wine squirting in Cozumel, but this looks way funner: a full on wine soaking involving whole villages....
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
She stood on the sidewalk in front of the glass outside the showroom, smoking while she waited for her ring to be cleaned and polished. She had snow white hair in huge curls, and she was wearing a cap that said Marines. Later on in our exchange I didn’t doubt that she was in the Marines, and I half wished I could’ve seen her in action. Her piercing dark eyes scrutinized me from behind her humongous…..well, granny glasses. She came into the store after her cigarette, the smell of tobacco mixing with her peppermint scent. Still waiting on her ring.
She handed me a pen from a tailor shop and told me that if I needed a tailor, to go to him. “He’s Greek, and he speaks Greek too. I don’t suppose you’re Catholic? No? Well I am, Latin Catholic, the oldest Catholics, and the Greek he speaks has a lot to do with the Latin services at my church.”
She leaned forward and stared at me, not blinking. “You have to listen to what I’m saying to get the real meaning of what I’m trying to tell you.” ( I had absolutely no idea what she was getting at….unless she thought I was really a Latin Catholic in disguise and there was some secret message being imparted to me…)
“Well anyway, this tailor makes my long broomstick skirts, and he fits them to me too.” (Now I have to wonder how a broomstick skirt could be tailor fit whatsoever) “He’s good, this tailor, so I pass his pens around and advertise for him by word of mouth, cause you can’t trust the newspapers.
“So if your jeweler gets me some pens of his, I’ll spread them around too.” She went on to tell me about young people today, who slide in to work at the last moment, leave the minute their time’s up, and are only concerned with how long of a break they get for lunch.
Then she got quite worked up about the picture of Jesus that hangs in the store, which she knew to have been drawn by a blind man. (I told you a lot of people notice it!) Her reaction was very strong, and she kept going back and forth between annoyance and incredulousness because he was blind, and extreme enthusiasm at the likeness, which must have come straight from God since he was blind from birth and was never influenced by other popular renditions of Christ.
“He saw it – IN HIS MIND!!!!!!” She shrieked, almost poking a hole in her own head. She is one of many, many customers to comment on the picture.
I am not Catholic, as she correctly assumed, but I was praying quite fervently that her ring would appear instantly…..
A BROOMSTICK SKIRT
She handed me a pen from a tailor shop and told me that if I needed a tailor, to go to him. “He’s Greek, and he speaks Greek too. I don’t suppose you’re Catholic? No? Well I am, Latin Catholic, the oldest Catholics, and the Greek he speaks has a lot to do with the Latin services at my church.”
She leaned forward and stared at me, not blinking. “You have to listen to what I’m saying to get the real meaning of what I’m trying to tell you.” ( I had absolutely no idea what she was getting at….unless she thought I was really a Latin Catholic in disguise and there was some secret message being imparted to me…)
“Well anyway, this tailor makes my long broomstick skirts, and he fits them to me too.” (Now I have to wonder how a broomstick skirt could be tailor fit whatsoever) “He’s good, this tailor, so I pass his pens around and advertise for him by word of mouth, cause you can’t trust the newspapers.
“So if your jeweler gets me some pens of his, I’ll spread them around too.” She went on to tell me about young people today, who slide in to work at the last moment, leave the minute their time’s up, and are only concerned with how long of a break they get for lunch.
Then she got quite worked up about the picture of Jesus that hangs in the store, which she knew to have been drawn by a blind man. (I told you a lot of people notice it!) Her reaction was very strong, and she kept going back and forth between annoyance and incredulousness because he was blind, and extreme enthusiasm at the likeness, which must have come straight from God since he was blind from birth and was never influenced by other popular renditions of Christ.
“He saw it – IN HIS MIND!!!!!!” She shrieked, almost poking a hole in her own head. She is one of many, many customers to comment on the picture.
I am not Catholic, as she correctly assumed, but I was praying quite fervently that her ring would appear instantly…..
A BROOMSTICK SKIRT
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The jeweler sat across the table in the showroom from his returning customer, the two as comfortable together as brothers. They had long ago left the topic of whatever jewelry-related business had brought the man in, and had turned to the subject of antiques.
The man was talking about a garden fountain an antique dealer had sold for $15,000, and unbelievable price for me to comprehend, from the adjacent desk where I was listening in. The lady who bought the fountain had it completely revamped - drilled, repaired, caulked - months later in defeat, she decided it was best as a plant holder.
"I can never believe the things some people will buy," the customer said, describing some imported dish board. "It's a BOARD!! But it's an antique, and it's what they want.
"And take the dress prices those girls pay for - what is it? Debutante? Cotillion?" (We'd apparently switched from antiques to their polar opposites - 16 year old girls) "God, it's just a white nightgown. Put some beads on it, that's all it is....."
The man was talking about a garden fountain an antique dealer had sold for $15,000, and unbelievable price for me to comprehend, from the adjacent desk where I was listening in. The lady who bought the fountain had it completely revamped - drilled, repaired, caulked - months later in defeat, she decided it was best as a plant holder.
"I can never believe the things some people will buy," the customer said, describing some imported dish board. "It's a BOARD!! But it's an antique, and it's what they want.
"And take the dress prices those girls pay for - what is it? Debutante? Cotillion?" (We'd apparently switched from antiques to their polar opposites - 16 year old girls) "God, it's just a white nightgown. Put some beads on it, that's all it is....."
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
I am always fascinated to observe the varied personalities that come into the store, and to listen to the colorful stories they tell of the people in their own lives.
Two lovely women were in our store today, one newly married at 55. She met her second husband at her children's school - they shared classes with his children. Since he came into her life he has been an antidote for her loneliness and a good influence on her boys, who were growing up without a dad.
It was her best friend who first introduced them - she was married to the single dad's best friend. That worked out well for EVERYBODY!
From their calm demeanor they could have just as easily been talking about the best methods for fertilizing petunias, as dropping little nuggets of wisdom in the shop as they discussed lessons they'd learned about marriage over the years.
When you're old, you concentrate more on being nice to each other. You've learned the importance of unselfishness and working for the good of the other person.
"Things that were important when we were 20, they aren't important anymore. You're going to have to get over all those annoying habits they have eventually, why get mad?"
The long divorced mom met her new husband five months before they began dating - her best friend laughingly relates how they stared at each other during school baseball games. When his sister had surgery, she stayed in the hospital room with him for days as he sat by his sister's bedside.
A short five months after they started dating, they were married.
"You just know what you want by the time you're my age."
Her friend knew her husband for 30 years before they finally got married - a far cry from a short 10 months. He hated dogs, had since being bitten as a child. But over the years as he got to know her and her dogs, he fell in love with her, and with them. Now the two rescue animals together.
"You learn things like, revenge isn't important. And that your words DO affect your husband and your relationship, and if the other person is upset by your negative words or your attitude, it IS your problem."
Two lovely women were in our store today, one newly married at 55. She met her second husband at her children's school - they shared classes with his children. Since he came into her life he has been an antidote for her loneliness and a good influence on her boys, who were growing up without a dad.
It was her best friend who first introduced them - she was married to the single dad's best friend. That worked out well for EVERYBODY!
From their calm demeanor they could have just as easily been talking about the best methods for fertilizing petunias, as dropping little nuggets of wisdom in the shop as they discussed lessons they'd learned about marriage over the years.
When you're old, you concentrate more on being nice to each other. You've learned the importance of unselfishness and working for the good of the other person.
"Things that were important when we were 20, they aren't important anymore. You're going to have to get over all those annoying habits they have eventually, why get mad?"
The long divorced mom met her new husband five months before they began dating - her best friend laughingly relates how they stared at each other during school baseball games. When his sister had surgery, she stayed in the hospital room with him for days as he sat by his sister's bedside.
A short five months after they started dating, they were married.
"You just know what you want by the time you're my age."
Her friend knew her husband for 30 years before they finally got married - a far cry from a short 10 months. He hated dogs, had since being bitten as a child. But over the years as he got to know her and her dogs, he fell in love with her, and with them. Now the two rescue animals together.
"You learn things like, revenge isn't important. And that your words DO affect your husband and your relationship, and if the other person is upset by your negative words or your attitude, it IS your problem."
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Let's Make These Drugs Look Beautiful
The dull brass box slammed down onto the table in the showroom. It was about as big as a box of matches, and it had made its appearance in the hands of a very old friend of the jeweler's. The box contained ten pills, one day's supply of MS and diabetes medication that cost more than $40 a day, and he had come to have a duplicate created in solid gold.
He told about joking with his wife several years before about going to jail for possession of illegal drugs if a policeman ever pulled him over. "Eh, lock him up!" was his wife's playful reply.
Back to the box. The man wanted it engraved with his initials, and the jeweler pulled out a bracelet he'd engraved that morning as an example of depth and font. The jeweler mentioned that the bracelet belonged to the late wife of an old friend and customer, and was being given to the man's teenage niece.
The man was interested, and began to list off the jewelry his daughter-in-law inherited when his own wife died. "She was lying in her hospital bed a few days before she died and she asked me 'What are you going to do with my jewelry, Jerry'? I told her 'Baby, I'll do whatever you want with it'. It was such a tender memory, it was almost uncomfortable to witness.
Again, business with the pill box;
Getting the initials right - J.R. for Jack the Ripper;
Complaining about the pills the box held, in the voice of someone who has dealt with their chronic condition for a long time and has learned to deal with it in cantankerous good humor;
Pills, $6,000 worth, ruined when the fridge door was left open;
Doctors' impossible orders not to get hot or stressed -
The unavoidable heat, which reminds him of his years in the deserts of New Mexico.
"I knew a guy who was drafted into the Service when he was 45 years old. They gave him the dummy test and and told him 'We're putting you in nuclear' - he was that smart. He was from a real small town in Southeast Oklahoma, and they gave him a bus ticket home; 'We'll let you know when we need you'.
"Sixty days and he'd heard nothing. So he went to the post office in the next town - and there was no bus ticket waiting for him. So he says 'Can I use your phone'? He called up the government and they said 'You just wait. We'll send you your bus ticket when we're ready for you'.
"Thirty days later he got his bus ticket to California. He stayed there for 34 days, did just what they told him and nothing else. After that he was bussed to New Mexico in a bus with the windows tinted black. They unloaded him straight into the barracks and he worked in nuclear until he was 80. He saw his best friends die of radiation poisoning, and you never heard a word about it. Having kids was never even a possibility.
"He tested the first atomic bomb at the White Sands Missile Range in '45. After it went off, he stood up and walked away, saying 'Well, the blankety-blank thing worked after all'. "
After the man left with his old brass pill box, the jeweler told me more about the man. He had been with him shortly after his MS diagnosis, when he was still struggling to keep the tears from his eyes. The jeweler remembers one thing from that conversation - "Money can't buy happiness."
Some people never learn to face their illnesses. The jeweler said his friend was never the same, but he was never a coward either. He faces MS with courage every day - and has the reputation to prove it.
-------------
Testing the Atomic Bomb:
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/trinity/index.html
http://www.takemytrip.com/06newmex/06_15a.htm
http://www.kilroywashere.org/004-Pages/Trinity/Trinity.html
Multiple Sclerosis (MS):
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/index.aspx
http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/guide/multiple-sclerosis-faq
He told about joking with his wife several years before about going to jail for possession of illegal drugs if a policeman ever pulled him over. "Eh, lock him up!" was his wife's playful reply.
Back to the box. The man wanted it engraved with his initials, and the jeweler pulled out a bracelet he'd engraved that morning as an example of depth and font. The jeweler mentioned that the bracelet belonged to the late wife of an old friend and customer, and was being given to the man's teenage niece.
The man was interested, and began to list off the jewelry his daughter-in-law inherited when his own wife died. "She was lying in her hospital bed a few days before she died and she asked me 'What are you going to do with my jewelry, Jerry'? I told her 'Baby, I'll do whatever you want with it'. It was such a tender memory, it was almost uncomfortable to witness.
Again, business with the pill box;
Getting the initials right - J.R. for Jack the Ripper;
Complaining about the pills the box held, in the voice of someone who has dealt with their chronic condition for a long time and has learned to deal with it in cantankerous good humor;
Pills, $6,000 worth, ruined when the fridge door was left open;
Doctors' impossible orders not to get hot or stressed -
The unavoidable heat, which reminds him of his years in the deserts of New Mexico.
"I knew a guy who was drafted into the Service when he was 45 years old. They gave him the dummy test and and told him 'We're putting you in nuclear' - he was that smart. He was from a real small town in Southeast Oklahoma, and they gave him a bus ticket home; 'We'll let you know when we need you'.
"Sixty days and he'd heard nothing. So he went to the post office in the next town - and there was no bus ticket waiting for him. So he says 'Can I use your phone'? He called up the government and they said 'You just wait. We'll send you your bus ticket when we're ready for you'.
"Thirty days later he got his bus ticket to California. He stayed there for 34 days, did just what they told him and nothing else. After that he was bussed to New Mexico in a bus with the windows tinted black. They unloaded him straight into the barracks and he worked in nuclear until he was 80. He saw his best friends die of radiation poisoning, and you never heard a word about it. Having kids was never even a possibility.
"He tested the first atomic bomb at the White Sands Missile Range in '45. After it went off, he stood up and walked away, saying 'Well, the blankety-blank thing worked after all'. "
After the man left with his old brass pill box, the jeweler told me more about the man. He had been with him shortly after his MS diagnosis, when he was still struggling to keep the tears from his eyes. The jeweler remembers one thing from that conversation - "Money can't buy happiness."
Some people never learn to face their illnesses. The jeweler said his friend was never the same, but he was never a coward either. He faces MS with courage every day - and has the reputation to prove it.
-------------
Testing the Atomic Bomb:
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/trinity/index.html
http://www.takemytrip.com/06newmex/06_15a.htm
http://www.kilroywashere.org/004-Pages/Trinity/Trinity.html
Multiple Sclerosis (MS):
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/index.aspx
http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/guide/multiple-sclerosis-faq
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