I once knew a girl named Pandora...

(Murray and I watched Notting Hill recently and I maintain that it is the greatest romantic comedy---my measuring stick of all romantic comedies. And if you don't know the rest of that quote... I'm not going to share it with you here.)

I came home from the Goldsmith Jeweler's red carpet event last night to tell Murray about my whole experience. And to admit that I spent $50 during our "let's be frugal" initiative. (There's lots of initiatives going on in our home right now, like the aforementioned AFFITPBHAS, and the Limit the Family Food Budget to $300 a Month Initiative [LTFFBT$300AMI], and the Let's Do Our Laundry More Than Once A Month Initiative [LDOLMTOAMI].)

So anyhoo, I digress. Last night I attended Goldsmith Jeweler's red carpet event. Let me tell you how this happened. And then I'll tell you what I told Murray. And then I'll tell you what Murray told me. And then I'll tell you about how Murray saw my $50 expense as an excuse to spend $50 himself, which doesn't totally make sense when that means that we've just doubled what we're spending during our time of frugality, but kindof makes sense because Murray doesn't have a cool new bracelet but I do, and he "needed" a pair of new shoes.

Anyhoo, I digress. When I was first invited to the red carpet event, I started immediately planning my outfit. I mean, what do I even have that I can wear to a red carpet event? Because we're not spending money on unnecessary things, and because I didn't need or even "need" a fancy dress, I'd have to piece something together with what I already had, and I was having a hard time doing so. Mercifully, a day or two before the event I received word that it was casual dress. And since it's still "red carpet," that must mean fancy casual, which is great because all my fancy casual clothes are buried deep in the closet where Gulliver can't drool on them.

So I got my fanciest pink ("magenta," Murray corrected me when I asked if I should wear pink or green) silk shirt and my hottest pair of dark jeans and my sexiest pair of clunky orthotic shoes, which are still one of the few pairs of shoes I can wear since my foot surgery, and sometimes people compliment me on them and I think oh my gosh are you smoking crack but I say thank you. (And still thanks to my mom for buying them for me because they are the only pair of shoes I could wear for months and they made my life much, much better, and my jeans cover most of them anyway. And no thanks to my dad who made fun of them the moment I came over to visit in Maryland, because my mom already has at least two pairs of these shoes in different colors and all of a sudden another pair appeared at the front door, and my dad asked "Where did these ugly shoes come from?")

And once I was there, the moment I tried to put a bite of food in my mouth, a chunk of saucy chicken fell from the skewer and all the way down my beautiful pink magenta silk shirt. So yeah. I attended a red carpet event with stains all down the front of my shirt the whole time.

But more about the event. The idea of this evening was to promote Pandora charm bracelets, which are the hot thing in Europe right now and are starting to make their way over to the United States, not unlike the Swine Flu (except that that's coming from our neighbors to the south). But they are unlike the Swine Flu in that you actually want to get one. But like the Swine Flu in that they are clearly contagious. Let me explain.

There were three stations during the evening. The first that I attended was a little group where we got to talk about where men get gift giving right and where they get it wrong, and I got to brag about Murray whose art is the greatest gift he could ever give me. The next stop was the Pandora station where we received our bracelet and got to choose a charm. There were so many to choose from, so this was the station that absolutely took the longest! I chose my charm, but couldn't help but choose two more to buy (enter the $50 expense). At the third station, we were taught a little bit about jewelry repair, and it struck me that I have two pieces of jewelry with sentimental value that need repair. One is a ring that El Senor gave me for a birthday and that I ruined rock climbing, and one is a necklace that was given to me by my host family when I lived in France. So guess who'll be returning to Goldsmith's very soon...

Oh, and speaking of returning to Goldsmith's, did I mention that this is where Murray and I found my ring? And Trevor, who worked with us, recognized me and greeted me by name when I walked in. And I haven't seen him for over a year. So yeah. Major points.

So at the end of the evening, I went back home to tell Murray about my experience. I explained the whole Pandora bracelet thing, telling him that it was actually a cool charm bracelet and I'm surprised at how much I like it. And that it makes gift giving easy for me because if anyone is ever wondering what gift they can get me, they can just get me a new charm for my charm bracelet! I showed him the charms that I chose, and told him that I did spend $50 on two charms. And then he told me that if the charms represented him, me, and Gulliver, he'd be much more likely to approve of the expense. And at the time, they didn't necessarily represent us, but I've since given it some thought and I've realized that I subconsciously chose these charms to represent each of us. And here's how:

1) The hedgehog. The hedgehog is me because it's the closest thing they had to a porcupine and I grew up in Porcupine, Ontario.

2) The fish. The fish is Murray because when I was single, people told me that there were lots of fish in the sea, but what people don't get is that it takes a LOT of work to find the RIGHT fish, and I held out for years till I finally found the ONE fish in the whole sea that was right for me.

3) The flower. The flower, which is between the fish and the hedgehog, represents little Gulliver because he is the fruit of the love that blossoms between me and Murray.


Ta da! There are actually a few things that I love about this bracelet. First of all, it is as simple or as intricate as you want it to be. The bracelet looks great with one charm on it! Or you can just keep piling on the charms! There are so many charms that it's easy to find ones to remind you of great life moments. So you can actually tell a story with your bracelet because everything on there has meaning.

Another thing I love is especially with little animals like mine has, I think this may be a great way to play with kids in church. When I was little, I used to love to play with my grandma's ring and with Mary Moo's necklace that had an apple on it. So I think that this is something nice that I can wear that Gulliver can quietly explore while we're in church when he's a little older.

And another thing I love is that they'll keep developing new charms. Do I see a cicada in the future? Fingers crossed!

So I told Murray all about it, and I think that he actually does think that the bracelet is nice. But he said that it's like opening Pandora's box... And I think he's right. But I'm glad to have opened it!

I was just surprised to find out that a pair of Camper's shoes came out of Pandora's box this morning. Yep. Murray found them and bought them on Ambien. I hope that he doesn't become a midnight-ambien shopper... But I'm glad that he can find something that he is equally excited about.

And now to share with you some Pandora pictures. They kindof make me laugh:

This one I call, "Oh my gosh, I love jewelry and off the shoulder shirts!"

This one I call, "Life has its moments. So many that you're going to have to get a bunch of bracelets and a necklace to fit all the charms you're going to have to buy because without the charms you'll never remember them. And PS you're a bad mom if you don't."

This one is called, "Hey, did I mention that you don't have to limit yourself to one bracelet? Oh and did I mention off the shoulder shirts because they are hot."

And this one I call, "Seriously, you should print this out and redeem this before May 9th, and make Goldsmith your jeweler because I have always been thrilled at their service and products!"