Saturdays with Ada
Even though I dread having to get to the community building by 9:00am because I am not now and never have been a morning person, I’m really enjoying Saturdays with Ada. She has pre-ballet from 9:00-9:40am at the community building downtown. Afterwards, we head to Mass. We alternate going to The Dusty Bookshelf and The Toy Store, both places she really likes. Sometimes I have to give the the talk about how she needs to learn to do things that other people like to get her into a store that I want to browse without hearing her gripe.
Today, she started to complain a little as I told her we were going to The Bay Leaf, but it stopped after she saw the stuffed animals and the aprons her size. Then we played the “what does this do” game until I got tired of it. This was the week to visit The Dusty Bookshelf. She wanted to eat at the noodle place again for lunch, mainly because she remembered that there was chocolate milk there.
One of my actual errands that I wanted to do was to take my wedding ring into Marks Jewelers. I’ve had problems with it, and I’m not very happy with the jeweler where it was purchased. It is white gold which means to have it that nice shiny silver, it has rhodium plating. This plating is suppose to last 1-3 years, but mine doesn’t even last a year. The bad part about this isn’t just the inconvenience or the yucky pale gold my ring turns when it wears off. It turns out that they included nickel in the alloy that makes the gold underneath white gold. So when the plating wears off, my finger starts breaking out in a torturous itchy rash and until I take it in to get re-plated, I cannot wear my wedding ring.
While it isn’t a law that they tell you that there is nickel in their alloys, it is common courtesy to do so for people –say like me–who have a nickel allergy. The original jeweler didn’t give us this courtesy. And the wrap-around ring had to be remade because it broke and it was not done well and they welded the two rings together before I even got to see it and they don’t line up in the front or back. I don’t particularly like the attitude of the employees either.
I’m pricing the cost of having the ring–which is a custom design, so we can’t just reorder one–made in a different metal by a jeweler that knows what they are doing and aren’t a**hats. Doing this will be expensive. Really expensive. I’m really torn because I’m not a big jewelry person, mainly because until I graduated from college I couldn’t afford much jewelry that didn’t make me break out, get infections (as was the case for earrings) or turn my skin black or green after one day of wearing it. I just got tired of dealing and eventually just didn’t wear much jewelry. Now, I don’t care. The only pieces that I ever see that excite me are usually made in a metal that I cannot wear. My wedding ring is my only piece of expensive jewelry that I do care about. It is the only piece that feels like an investment. It is something that I would like to pass down. So, I’m torn. There are so many other things I could use that money for, and jewelry is never on the top of that list, but my wedding ring is different. And I’m leaning towards Marks because it is a Lawrence business, and I talked to the person who would actually be doing the work making my ring in town. And they have a good reputation, so I know that they will do it correctly. My choices right now are between platinum or palladium. Palladium is what is used in white gold alloys for people who have nickel allergies since palladium allergies are more rare. The guy I talked to today said that if I choose palladium, he would loan me a ring to wear for awhile to make sure I don’t have a reaction to it. Fixing this ring is the only significant amount of money I would ever want to spend on any piece of jewelry for the rest of my life*. My brain keeps going back to all the other things that I would instantly use that money for if it were any jewelry other than my wedding ring. I’d rather spend multiple thousands of dollars on glass.
The photo with this post is part of the Valentine’s photos I took of the kids. Ada had a hard time holding her head still, and I had a hard time directing her to get a good shot, so I don’t think any of the hair ones came out that great. I liked this one due to the eyes. Ada really does have anime eyes.
*Until they come out with my holographic PDA ring with built in sonic screwdriver. However by that time, I’ll be so old, I won’t be able to figure out how to use it.
