And still more Standby has its good points and its bad points. I've definitely had worse standby experiences, like the time I decided to ask--after my third 4am trip across Manila in an attempt to return from Christmas vacation on the once daily flight to Minneapolis, with connection to Dallas--"So, when do you expect to be taking standby passengers again?" only to find out I should not expect to get back to school until sometime around spring break. This time, however, there were plenty of opportunities, and though we were not called for boarding on any of our first several options, we did get on the last flight of the day bound for Denver.
It was going to be a busy weekend, but arriving late as we did, a good night's sleep became the first order of business. Other things on the list included churches, reception halls, caterers, florists, and of course the jewelers. Our three hours at Luisa Graff's Diamonds & Jewelry was the highlight of our time in Colorado Springs. Lindsey's dad has done some extensive business with this establishment over the years, and it showed in the special attention we received from the moment we walked in the door. We would learn later that, after JT gave her a tip that we would be coming in the next weekend, our sales-and-service woman, Ratana, went through all of the princess cut diamonds they had in stock and decided there was only one that was exceptional enough to show us. She spent the next week scouring her supply chains to put together a collection of equally extraordinary stones from which we would choose.
When we were seated in front of a display case, Lindsey immediately began scanning through the settings, picking several that she would like to try on for a closer look. While she was intently focused on the left side of the case, I let my eyes quickly play over the rest. "What about this one?" I asked, handing her the only ring in the entire case that I could imagine her liking. Nothing else in there really looked like her style. Her response was a less than enthusiastic shurg as she set it down and went back to populating a tray with her favorites. Once she had three or four settings picked out, we moved on to looking at stones. Ratana spent a little bit of time explaining the four "C's" of diamonds and then began taking us through the stunning array of princess and radiant cut diamonds that she had assembled the previous week. We settled on a beautiful, perfectly colorless 3/4 carat piece and returned our attention to narrowing down the selection of bands.
Now armed with the diamond that would eventually set there, Lindsey was able to get a good picture of what each ring would actually look like on her finger. While she liked them all, none of the rings she had picked out earlier struck her as her ring. It was back to the case. "Can I see that one?" she pointed. Her eyes lit up as she slid the ring, her ring, onto her finger and Ratana dropped the stone into the center. The sharp ones in the audience may already have figured out which ring she pointed at. For those of you who aren't quite that quick, it was the one I had picked out within our first ten minutes in the store. Funny how a diamond can change things.
It starts with the shoe. Maybe the next day it's a t-shirt or a sock. You don't know if the washing machine ate it, or your roommate borrowed it a month ago and forgot that it was yours. All you know is that by the end of the week, you're walking to class naked because you don't have any clothes left.
