Feeling: ridiculous
Listening to: Tori Amos - Not the Red Baron
Reading/Watching: The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

Okay, so back to the Usual Life of Katie.

It's a rule, there cannot be unbridled happiness in the ULoK without some disappointment, some frustration, some embarrassment. It's written somewhere.

The ring mon coeur bought was one size too small, due to miscommunication, and I was wearing it on my pinkie, which caused odd looks, and made me feel like it wasn't a "real" engagement ring. Partially because it's not the typical boring diamond solitaire, it's a white-gold etched Victorian band, an emerald in the center surrounded by a frame of wee winking diamonds. And damned if I'm going to make it look like anything but what it is.

Plus, it kept wiggling and sliding on my pinkie finger, worrying me into thinking I might lose it.

So, while trotting around Nevada City, I gritted my teeth and squeezed that damn thing over my knuckle onto my fourth finger, so that it wouldn't get lost, and figured I'd just wriggle it off with the help of some soap or butter later.

We went into a jeweler's shop, to get an estimate on how long it would take to upside the ring, and how much it would cost. The woman asked to see it, and when I offered my hand, she asked me to take it off, and I said I'd rather not, since it would be a struggle to get it back on again.

Then she flipped out about how I'd wedged it on, telling horror stories of women who wore rings for years and finally had to get them cut off because they were stuck, and I was all incredulous because hey, I'd only had it on for an hour or so.

But then we tried spraying it with Windex (which allegedly works), and wriggling it off, but it was stuck. The more the lady wriggled it, the more my finger protested and started to swell up from all the strain on it. She was completely horrified, and I just couldn't buy into her utter freaking-outness, because I could still feel and move my finger just fine, which meant it wasn't cutting off circulation, it just needed to wait until the swelling went down.

But mon coeur bought into the freaking-outness, and he was pissed at me all day for putting it on. That night, when his mom and I tried soaking my hand in icewater, then using soap and wriggling it around again, it still wouldn't come off, and he got even more sulky.

I reminded him that it didn't hurt except when people tugged on it like crazy, it wasn't cutting off circulation (we would have known by then), and if it needed to be cut off eventually because the swelling refused to go down, we would do it at a jeweler's in Texas once we got back. And, as his mom pointed out, they'd have to cut it to size it anyway, so everything would be fine.

It's been two days now, my finger is still swollen and traumatized, but works just fine, and I just feel like a nimrod. It looks like it'd be so easy to wriggle off, but for some reason the ring is a stubborn little bitch and doesn't want to let go. So I have to be careful with it, and hope the swelling goes down, and otherwise bide my time until we get back home.

On the upside, the chances of losing it are dramatically decreased.

On the downside, this is the same thing evil vets do to animals' tails when they want them to fall off.

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