I got my wrist fixed a few weeks ago. Almost seven years ago, when I bought a new cuff whose plain design meant that no silver knot would bite RDC in his sleep, I decided to retire the 1987 bangle before it snapped. Having been on my wrist for a dozen years, it was badly beaten up, bent, hammered, and creased; since the Santa Fe trip it has lived in honorable retirment in my jewelry box. The cuff I bought on that trip was seven years in the finding: I'd been wearing the previous one since 1991 but as of 1992, RDC would occasionally complain of it. I didn't think a new bangle would be another seven years in the finding, but it was.
Bangles have been either delicate (to survive on me, jewelry must be substantial, and especially not hollow) or fussy (for every day I prefer perfect simplicity) or financially unfeasible or, most commonly, too small to fit over my broad right hand. The search, continual and haphazard, was fruitless.
The Monday we returned from Aspen I attended a friendly little talk on Jane Eyre at the downtown library. I left the house early, intending to look at some cows and bring a pair of earrings to Gusterman's before.
I bought these earrings in March from one of the shoppees on Old South Gaylord. Amethysts and some sort of blue stone and a pearl and I liked them very much, as did others. Some friends from the nabe complimented them and HEBD admired them when I was home in April. I should have given them to her then, I thought at the time, but didn't; so I thought it appropriate punishment just a few days later when the post snapped off the back of one. If I hadn't been selfish, it wouldn't've snapped.
I haven't been to a silversmith since. I asked one in Aspen about re-affixing a post to an earring and he said it was very tricky and expensive. Mostly I think the job would be beneath him. I wondered if some of the plumbing solder we have would do the trick, or be too blobby or turn my ear green or not set the post perpendicularly enough. And this evening when I went downtown, did I remember the earrings? I did not. But I asked a smith at Gusterman's and he said it was a minor operation and no problem. Now I just have to get downtown again.
The success of the evening wasn't having the earring fixed but finding a bangle. Solid, substantial, simply designed (a perfect circle, no more no less) stering silver, 5 mm wide, flat inside and curved outside, and best of all, its inner diameter is just over 2.75" and therefore fits.
The Jane Eyre chat was enjoyable if not erudite, and to get to its fifth-floor classroom I had to pass through a display of editorial cartoons, and I found a bangle and got my wrist fixed--it makes the right noise now after seven years of silence. It was a lovely evening.
I like to think that the occasional clink of the two bracelets is not annoying to those around me. I hope. I myself liked the full cacophony of my beloved second-grade teacher's arm, braceleted from wrist to elbow, but then I was seven at the time and adored her (and continued to adore her even when I couldn't continue to be seven).
I saw in the Tattered Cover's announcements recently that an old acquaintance of mine from DU, since moved to Ohio, would have a reading, so last night I went. Her short stories have touches of the same wit that makes her such a delight in person, and I saw some DU folk and had a delicious if short gossip afterward with my first DU acquaintance, and bought the former's book and Lemony Snicket's Beatrice Letters, and walked home with the woman from the nabe who works there. (I think I'll call her Michaela.)
When I got home I'm glad Blake was in a prancing, exploring mood, because the Snicket was not a lying-on-the-couch type of read. If the book gives any worthwhile clues at all to the mythos of the Unfortunate Events, I wasn't able to see past the marketing ploy I'd succumbed to to make sense of them. Also I didn't have an internet handy to check for anagrams. My laptop was closer than the Scrabble game downstairs, and all I was thinking was whatsisname from Rosemary's Baby whose last words were "The name is an anagram" and Rosemary Scrabbling out which name and what it meant.
Edited to add that Kal said she and Neal were in the TC last night looking for books for their honeymoon (British Columbia! I must connect them with Chat) and heard a laugh and looked for me. Obviously to no avail, but I'm glad to know my laugh is still distinctive. Also Kal knew I was going to be there. Also I should say that when she and I were in the library yesterday, I did not laugh or speak loudly.
Also when she came and told me that today, I realized anew that she's getting married! and I am her closest friend in Denver! so I get to throw her a shower! After that I might have got distracted from plans for Hecate Strait and a picnic reception in the meadow until she talked me down, pointing out that September a little early to fuss about a May shower. It's not too early to fuss about a July wedding, though, and that's another thing I get to do: go bridal dress shopping. Wheee!