Rings!
Sorry I haven't been posting as much lately! Kim's been coming home (well, to my home) every day when she gets off of work, and since nighttime is typically when I get online it's cut into my blogging. That's okay, atleast now I've got stuff to talk about!
Last Thursday night Kim stayed the night with me after the HP7.2 premiere. For a shortened version of that night's events: I made a ton of HP candy, dressed up like Hermione Granger, had my picture taken by a random person, and saw the movie. Kim, Elyse, Katie and I had a HP party before the movie and it was very successful, I felt like a little kid again.
Anyway, Friday morning mom wakes me and Kim up and says that we should get ready to go to Travis' house to pack my things. I say that Kim has work in a few hours (basically, that is not how Kim would like to spend her morning). Then, mom suggests we go pawn shopping. She knew that we had been looking into getting each other rings, but felt that we should have been shopping together. She then proceeded to pull out her engagement ring from my dad and told me all about how ugly she thought the ring was when he proposed. That kind of sealed it for us, although I still felt uneasy because I felt that getting rings infront of each other would ruin the surprise.
Anyway, we went to the first pawn store and didn't really find anything. Mom was kind of speaking for Kim - Kim gets nervous, you know. Anyway, so at the next pawn store we visited we really didn't find anything... until the guy mentioned that they had a clearance section. In the window I spotted a $349 ring, that could have easily sold for $1500 (if not more) in a jewelry store. It was a princess past-present-future setup (where there is one big middle stone and two slightly smaller side stones), white gold, with some round diamonds set into the band. I tried it on and feel in love with it. I had wanted something intricate (I tend to like designs on the side of the ring) and the different layers of the diamonds made it look intricate enough for me. Kim tried it on after I did, and when we left I made sure to repeat over and over, "Just so you know, I love that ring." I could say this from experience because I'd been stopping by pawn shops atleast once or twice a week for pretty much the whole summer. We stopped by five pawn shops total before I took Kim to work. After finding 'my ring' I was pretty much set, so I let Kim do most of the trying on. I felt a little left out, though, because Kim was the first to try on rings and mom would kind of lord over the jewelry case, picking out rings for Kim to try on. I just felt like I was missing out on the experience, and I could tell that the salesmen thought that Kim was the one getting engaged because it was focused around her.
After the fifth store we ran by home so Kim could change before work real quick. Mom had had her car dropped off for an oil change and she needed me to take her back to get it, but since I was also dropping off Kim and Kim was on a time limit mom rode with us. At the end of the day, Kim had never actually found a ring that she thought was 'the one'. At one point mom had pointed out to Kim that she noticed that Kim had also liked my ring, and if I hadn't claimed it would that have been the one Kim wanted. Kim said yes but that she'd rather that I have it, which was so sweet that I almost went and bought the ring for her so she wouldn't have to miss out. At first, after I dropped Kim off, mom just wanted me to take her back to her car. But there was one pawn shop that I had been to once that I had remembered had a lot of pretty rings, and she finally agreed to go with me since it was close by.
When we walked in, we were the only customers. A lady came over to the case to help us out. It didn't take us more than a few minutes to spot it. There, in the case, was a princess-cut past-present-future ring, white gold, with diamonds set into the band. I had the woman pull it out and looked to mom excitedly - "If this isn't the exact same ring, it nearly is." My mom explains to the lady that I'm her daughter and I'm getting married to my girlfriend - which was the first time we felt the need to distinguish the difference. Then we explained that earlier in the day I had claimed a ring that Kim had wanted, and now here we were, staring at the duplicate. The lady said that it figured that we would pick the same rings, because we clearly love each other. I was so excited I almost teared up in joy. So, in fear of losing it, I went ahead and put the ring on layaway.
Afterward, I was so excited that me and mom drove up to visit the ring I had picked out. The place where I had gotten Kim's ring had said that if my ring was the same and being sold for cheaper that they'd give me $25 off, so we took a picture of Kim's ring with us when we went to check out mine. I got really excited to visit it - the people even recognized us from earlier. They guy pulled out the ring for me, and I tried it on and... I wasn't as impressed. It wasn't the same ring. My ring had round diamonds in the band and Kim's were square. Dirt had accumulated around the round stones and made my ring look dingy, and I was pretty sure my diamonds were smaller. After all of that hype, I really didn't want the ring anymore. Needless to say, I was bummed.
That night Kim came over after work and I told her that I had found a ring, but that I was saving up for it. I got a little insecure - "What if you find someone else in 20 years?" But I knew that my fears were just an insecurity and completely groundless. It was crazy to think that I was old enough to do this, that at twenty-one I was picking the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I mean, yeah, I know you can get divorced if you change your mind, but that's not what this is about. This is me buying a ring and thinking, "I'm going to buy this for a person, and I'm going to give it to them, and it's going to be a promise to love them for the rest of my life." How crazy is that?
The next day I went to Travis' to pack my things, and because mom said Travis knows of more pawn shops that are in more of a bad part of town (aka: better to have him with us). Kim came over and at first it was going to be me, Kim, Travis, and Hannah, but then I requested to leave Hannah behind because she still doesn't technically know about me and Kim and she'd be more than happy to tell Summer. Hannah's the reason why Summer, when making a comment about something seeming homosexual, say's "that's G-A-Y" (like literally spelling it out). Needless to say, Hannah did not need to come. So Travis, Kim, and I set out... but then mom left her debit card in Travis' wallet and we had to take it to her at the mall, and somehow it ended up that all four of us went. We went further into the bad part of town than I had been to before - not that anything bad would happen so early in the day. We went to three or four shops, and this time it was all about me. I told Kim that morning that I had put her ring on layaway because mom pointed out that if I didn't say that Kim would end up looking for a ring that day, which would be no bueno. After a few of the shops way out of the way, we came back into town and hit up a few more. One in particular was an all-jewelry pawn shop. Everything was so beautiful and nothing had prices declared - which should have sent up warning flags. I found Kim's actual identical ring, and then one slightly better but still similar and fell in love with it. I oo'd and aw'd... until I saw the price tag. $1,999. I spent $450 on Kim's. He said he could go down to $1,200, but I knew it was better to go. Afterward, Kim was really irritable.
When we separated cars, (mom and Travis to mom's car and me and Kim back to my car) I asked Kim what was wrong. She said all day I had kept saying I liked my ring from yesterday best, which made her wonder why we were looking in the first place. BUT then I found a beautiful ring that was so far out of her price range, and she felt like now I was settling on my ring. She said she had been ready to buy my ring, because with such a great ring on clearance it was sure to sell quickly, but that she can't buy it if I'm not sure. I told her we should go back and visit the ring and see.
I then proceeded to explain to Kim on the ride there that her ring looked remarkably like mine, so much in fact that I had thought that they were the same. I explained that I bought her ring thinking that we would have matching rings, and that I had gotten really excited about the idea, but that when I saw that they weren't actually matching rings I was disappointed. I told her that I had spent the whole day trying to find a ring that matched hers, but that I still loved that ring and still wanted it (a bit of a stretch, I wasn't entirely sure). Once she heard the whole story she relaxed, and we talked about the prospect of getting married.
When we walked into the store, the guy recognized us. He was showing some guy some product infront of the main case, which had the clearance items. At first glance, my mood fell, as I couldn't see my ring at all. But when the man moved I saw the ring had just been moved. It shimmered in the case and I fell in love with it all over again. When the guy pulled the ring out (knowing which one, as this was the third time I'd visited it in two days), my eyes lit up. The ring was so damned beautiful, and I couldn't remember why I had thought it was dingy... until the guy explained that the night before some lady had asked him to clean it for her, because she was going to come back and buy it. She clearly chose not to come back, we arrived like 30 minutes before close, and I realized that the reason why it had looked so dingy was because it was dirty! I oo'd and ah'd over it so much that the guy asked if we wanted to consider paying for it out right or layaway, and Kim asked me to walk out and then turned to him to say, "I've got that covered." When I walked out to my car I called mom to tell her, and her and Travis rushed over to see the ring.
Ever since then, me and Kim randomly talk about getting married, and our rings. I have pictures of both, which allow me to both brag and pine for a ring that is not yet mine. It hasn't taken away the surprise for me like I feared it would - I'm ecstatic that Kim doesn't know exactly what her ring looks like and I feel like it fits her style better. It's a bit more linear than mine, which works out best, and mine is slightly more feminine. I thought it would take away from the proposal that we both know that at some point we'll both have rings in our dorms, except I don't really care because her ring is still a surprise to her. And I'll be excited for the day that I can wear my ring. I'm so excited about us getting engaged that I'm not worried about coming out to my classmates, although I might be more nervous when I student teach. And I'm excited to have a candle pass from my sisters, which would mean the world to me.
Basically, everything is awesome.
[Except for the GRE I'm taking on Friday. WAH!]
Last Thursday night Kim stayed the night with me after the HP7.2 premiere. For a shortened version of that night's events: I made a ton of HP candy, dressed up like Hermione Granger, had my picture taken by a random person, and saw the movie. Kim, Elyse, Katie and I had a HP party before the movie and it was very successful, I felt like a little kid again.
Anyway, Friday morning mom wakes me and Kim up and says that we should get ready to go to Travis' house to pack my things. I say that Kim has work in a few hours (basically, that is not how Kim would like to spend her morning). Then, mom suggests we go pawn shopping. She knew that we had been looking into getting each other rings, but felt that we should have been shopping together. She then proceeded to pull out her engagement ring from my dad and told me all about how ugly she thought the ring was when he proposed. That kind of sealed it for us, although I still felt uneasy because I felt that getting rings infront of each other would ruin the surprise.
Anyway, we went to the first pawn store and didn't really find anything. Mom was kind of speaking for Kim - Kim gets nervous, you know. Anyway, so at the next pawn store we visited we really didn't find anything... until the guy mentioned that they had a clearance section. In the window I spotted a $349 ring, that could have easily sold for $1500 (if not more) in a jewelry store. It was a princess past-present-future setup (where there is one big middle stone and two slightly smaller side stones), white gold, with some round diamonds set into the band. I tried it on and feel in love with it. I had wanted something intricate (I tend to like designs on the side of the ring) and the different layers of the diamonds made it look intricate enough for me. Kim tried it on after I did, and when we left I made sure to repeat over and over, "Just so you know, I love that ring." I could say this from experience because I'd been stopping by pawn shops atleast once or twice a week for pretty much the whole summer. We stopped by five pawn shops total before I took Kim to work. After finding 'my ring' I was pretty much set, so I let Kim do most of the trying on. I felt a little left out, though, because Kim was the first to try on rings and mom would kind of lord over the jewelry case, picking out rings for Kim to try on. I just felt like I was missing out on the experience, and I could tell that the salesmen thought that Kim was the one getting engaged because it was focused around her.
After the fifth store we ran by home so Kim could change before work real quick. Mom had had her car dropped off for an oil change and she needed me to take her back to get it, but since I was also dropping off Kim and Kim was on a time limit mom rode with us. At the end of the day, Kim had never actually found a ring that she thought was 'the one'. At one point mom had pointed out to Kim that she noticed that Kim had also liked my ring, and if I hadn't claimed it would that have been the one Kim wanted. Kim said yes but that she'd rather that I have it, which was so sweet that I almost went and bought the ring for her so she wouldn't have to miss out. At first, after I dropped Kim off, mom just wanted me to take her back to her car. But there was one pawn shop that I had been to once that I had remembered had a lot of pretty rings, and she finally agreed to go with me since it was close by.
When we walked in, we were the only customers. A lady came over to the case to help us out. It didn't take us more than a few minutes to spot it. There, in the case, was a princess-cut past-present-future ring, white gold, with diamonds set into the band. I had the woman pull it out and looked to mom excitedly - "If this isn't the exact same ring, it nearly is." My mom explains to the lady that I'm her daughter and I'm getting married to my girlfriend - which was the first time we felt the need to distinguish the difference. Then we explained that earlier in the day I had claimed a ring that Kim had wanted, and now here we were, staring at the duplicate. The lady said that it figured that we would pick the same rings, because we clearly love each other. I was so excited I almost teared up in joy. So, in fear of losing it, I went ahead and put the ring on layaway.
Afterward, I was so excited that me and mom drove up to visit the ring I had picked out. The place where I had gotten Kim's ring had said that if my ring was the same and being sold for cheaper that they'd give me $25 off, so we took a picture of Kim's ring with us when we went to check out mine. I got really excited to visit it - the people even recognized us from earlier. They guy pulled out the ring for me, and I tried it on and... I wasn't as impressed. It wasn't the same ring. My ring had round diamonds in the band and Kim's were square. Dirt had accumulated around the round stones and made my ring look dingy, and I was pretty sure my diamonds were smaller. After all of that hype, I really didn't want the ring anymore. Needless to say, I was bummed.
That night Kim came over after work and I told her that I had found a ring, but that I was saving up for it. I got a little insecure - "What if you find someone else in 20 years?" But I knew that my fears were just an insecurity and completely groundless. It was crazy to think that I was old enough to do this, that at twenty-one I was picking the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I mean, yeah, I know you can get divorced if you change your mind, but that's not what this is about. This is me buying a ring and thinking, "I'm going to buy this for a person, and I'm going to give it to them, and it's going to be a promise to love them for the rest of my life." How crazy is that?
The next day I went to Travis' to pack my things, and because mom said Travis knows of more pawn shops that are in more of a bad part of town (aka: better to have him with us). Kim came over and at first it was going to be me, Kim, Travis, and Hannah, but then I requested to leave Hannah behind because she still doesn't technically know about me and Kim and she'd be more than happy to tell Summer. Hannah's the reason why Summer, when making a comment about something seeming homosexual, say's "that's G-A-Y" (like literally spelling it out). Needless to say, Hannah did not need to come. So Travis, Kim, and I set out... but then mom left her debit card in Travis' wallet and we had to take it to her at the mall, and somehow it ended up that all four of us went. We went further into the bad part of town than I had been to before - not that anything bad would happen so early in the day. We went to three or four shops, and this time it was all about me. I told Kim that morning that I had put her ring on layaway because mom pointed out that if I didn't say that Kim would end up looking for a ring that day, which would be no bueno. After a few of the shops way out of the way, we came back into town and hit up a few more. One in particular was an all-jewelry pawn shop. Everything was so beautiful and nothing had prices declared - which should have sent up warning flags. I found Kim's actual identical ring, and then one slightly better but still similar and fell in love with it. I oo'd and aw'd... until I saw the price tag. $1,999. I spent $450 on Kim's. He said he could go down to $1,200, but I knew it was better to go. Afterward, Kim was really irritable.
When we separated cars, (mom and Travis to mom's car and me and Kim back to my car) I asked Kim what was wrong. She said all day I had kept saying I liked my ring from yesterday best, which made her wonder why we were looking in the first place. BUT then I found a beautiful ring that was so far out of her price range, and she felt like now I was settling on my ring. She said she had been ready to buy my ring, because with such a great ring on clearance it was sure to sell quickly, but that she can't buy it if I'm not sure. I told her we should go back and visit the ring and see.
I then proceeded to explain to Kim on the ride there that her ring looked remarkably like mine, so much in fact that I had thought that they were the same. I explained that I bought her ring thinking that we would have matching rings, and that I had gotten really excited about the idea, but that when I saw that they weren't actually matching rings I was disappointed. I told her that I had spent the whole day trying to find a ring that matched hers, but that I still loved that ring and still wanted it (a bit of a stretch, I wasn't entirely sure). Once she heard the whole story she relaxed, and we talked about the prospect of getting married.
When we walked into the store, the guy recognized us. He was showing some guy some product infront of the main case, which had the clearance items. At first glance, my mood fell, as I couldn't see my ring at all. But when the man moved I saw the ring had just been moved. It shimmered in the case and I fell in love with it all over again. When the guy pulled the ring out (knowing which one, as this was the third time I'd visited it in two days), my eyes lit up. The ring was so damned beautiful, and I couldn't remember why I had thought it was dingy... until the guy explained that the night before some lady had asked him to clean it for her, because she was going to come back and buy it. She clearly chose not to come back, we arrived like 30 minutes before close, and I realized that the reason why it had looked so dingy was because it was dirty! I oo'd and ah'd over it so much that the guy asked if we wanted to consider paying for it out right or layaway, and Kim asked me to walk out and then turned to him to say, "I've got that covered." When I walked out to my car I called mom to tell her, and her and Travis rushed over to see the ring.
Ever since then, me and Kim randomly talk about getting married, and our rings. I have pictures of both, which allow me to both brag and pine for a ring that is not yet mine. It hasn't taken away the surprise for me like I feared it would - I'm ecstatic that Kim doesn't know exactly what her ring looks like and I feel like it fits her style better. It's a bit more linear than mine, which works out best, and mine is slightly more feminine. I thought it would take away from the proposal that we both know that at some point we'll both have rings in our dorms, except I don't really care because her ring is still a surprise to her. And I'll be excited for the day that I can wear my ring. I'm so excited about us getting engaged that I'm not worried about coming out to my classmates, although I might be more nervous when I student teach. And I'm excited to have a candle pass from my sisters, which would mean the world to me.
Basically, everything is awesome.
[Except for the GRE I'm taking on Friday. WAH!]