To Hell with Hits...Let's Go Shopping!

No mourning over the death of my latest H&H article, although I thought for sure somebody would find "...fitting your dainty foot into a glass slipper held by a prince has nothing on learning you have special powers that can stop a werewolf in high dudgeon in his tracks" out and out hilarious. Instead, let's go shopping.

Like every other young woman, my daughter is totally into Vera Bradley. To me her stuff is very hippy dippy, Calico Corner peasant skirty—not something that would appeal to a 2011 audience. But for girls living in dorms, who need their ID, key, and phone handy, they really are just the thing. So when we wandered into the Vera Bradley store so she could buy a larger wallet/wristlet thingie because her new phone is bigger than the old one, I kinda cringed. They were having a sale, though, and the "one for the money" she bought was actually cute.

The more I thought about it, though, the more the idea of not having to figure out what to do with a phone, keys, money, I.D., credit card, and key ring reward cards while running out for a quick errand in the hot summer heat or going to the gym appealed to me. The sale continued when we next visited the store, and we both ended up with purchases, although nothing we bought this time was on sale. She bought the "one for the money" in the print she liked, along with a lanyard to sorta turn it into a shoulder bag, and I bought a "one for the money" I liked, in the same print as the only sunglass case I've found that can fit this pair of sunglasses I have with enormous hinges. She also gave me the "one for the money" she'd been using this past month, and asked me why I ended up with two. The answer well and true? I wanted the wallet thingie to match the sunglass case and her cast-off didn't have a sunglass case to match. Also, I've been on a buying binge, the first in years and years, for the past couple of months, and saw no reason to deny myself.

The binge, thankfully, is over now. My husband asked how it felt to be able to buy whatever I wanted (more or less); he's been on his own binge as well. I told him I loved everything I bought...nothing was a regretful purchase...but that I did not like feeling as though I needed things I clearly did not need. He, on the other hand, was just happy to be able to buy whatever he wanted to buy.

Let's tally it up now, shall we?

• White topaz earrings—25% off—from the amazing @GottaHaveBling (Ross-Simons) because I wanted needed a pair of day-to-day earrings that were substantial, and real (white topaz is not expensive, but it looks like diamonds; the real cost is the white gold setting).
• Two Brighton discontinued watches from e-Bay; I've hungered for the chronograph for years (it goes without saying both brand new watches, with tags and boxes, were both less expensive than originally priced at Brighton).
• A multi-gem bracelet, also 25% off, and also from Ross-Simons. Ever since I first saw that David Yurman Confetti Cuff I wrote about last month, I've wanted to find a more reasonably priced alternative. This cuff is amazing, and according to my jeweler, hand made.
• Re-set a very large blue topaz yellow gold ring into a white gold pendant on sterling silver chain. I've owned this gorgeous blue topaz for more than 20 years, but what worked when I worked in an office setting no longer fits my lifestyle. My jeweler re-set it as a white gold pendant, used the gold from the ring to off-set some of the cost, and we picked out a very modern sterling chain to go with it. I saw no reason to buy a white gold chain at five times the price. Please excuse the photo; it's blurry, but it manages to display the gem's color quite nicely.

I splurged on a bag for Rachael as well (this bag, on the right, in this color—on your left)...she still can't believe I stopped being austere, but it's fabulous and she now "gets" why fabulous bags are fabulous. We're also doing major work on the house, but I'm not including any of that, because not only are we going to enjoy it, it'll help when the market returns and we can get the hell out of Dallas!

And so ends the Great 2011 Shopping Spree for things I craved, but did not need. When I add it all up—thanks to the terrific sales prices—it's not all that bad, but it's the craving aspect that scared the hell out of me. May I embark on no further sprees for years to come.

To Hell with Hits...Let's Go Shopping!

You've Got Mail

On Thursday my daughter and I went out to lunch, then stopped off at a local B&N before moving on. After being accosted by the Nook salesman, I realized how off-putting my own Nook selling must have been for many of the customers I hawked at. I did enjoy playing with the new B&W touchscreen Nook, but didn't like the salesman's getting a basic Kindle fact wrong in trying to contrast the two. All in all, not a great experience, and one that alerted me to the reality that I no longer enjoy visiting B&N. Since the Borders across the street—there first for years before B&N moved in on their territory with a boutique-like store that remains one of my least favorites—closed a couple of months ago, it's the only game in town, save the big Half Price Books nearby, and as much as I enjoy a bargain, the experiences are not the same.

As I told my daughter over lunch when she launched into Luddite mode about the death of retail (yes, she's only 19), the world changes, and we must change with it. I told her about Lee leaving his job as lead in the Music section because he didn't want to preside over its eventual dismantling. I told her that although I left to earn that abortive MLIS degree, I knew that every Nook I sold would eventually eliminate my job. I understood that the necessary cannibalization of B&N's brick and mortar stores through lower prices at B&N.com would eventually do the same. It just depressed the hell out of me to be in the thick of it.

Well, last night I had an epiphany of sorts. The three of us were watching You've Got Mail for the first time—I'd TiVo'd it probably two years ago—when I realized that what B&N did to locally-owned bookstores in the 90s, Amazon is now doing to super-bookstores like B&N.

Is that a bad thing? Well, last Thursday my daughter wanted two older books. They were available at Amazon and I planned to order them until she asked if we could get them at B&N so she could start one immediately. I did that whole text me if you have them thing...and never heard back. Meanwhile, I went ahead and ordered the books from Amazon, and they arrived Friday afternoon, a full day before we expected them. Now, you may not be able to browse at Amazon, or sit in a comfy chair...oh, wait...you can't do the latter at many local B&N's anymore either. The store I worked at never had the great chairs, and at some point the management removed all customer chairs save those in front of the window at tables near the magazines. Another local store removed most of their comfy chairs; the last three times I visited and wanted to sit and read awhile, there was no place to do so, leaving me feeling bait & switched: "You once invited me to spend the afternoon by providing a comfortable place to sit and read, and now, unless I go spend more money at your cafe, you'd really prefer that I leave."

I'm hoping this disaffection with visiting B&N ends, because as a life-long reader, spending time wandering around bookstores has been a favorite activity. Even throughout my two-years as a B&N bookseller I enjoyed visiting various stores throughout the country as a customer, although I forever straightened up display tables and put books away that others had left behind. But because actually buying at a B&N tends to be a costly experience, and because Amazon's prices tend to be lower (sometimes by a little...sometimes by a lot) than B&N.com's prices, I don't expect it to go away any time soon.

Sigh.

BTW, I did take exception to one scene in the movie. When Kathleen Kelly wanders into Fox's books and sits in the Kids section, a customer asks a salesman about a particular book, and he can't help her because he's simply an anonymous clerk who might well have been working at Home Depot. At least at our B&N, we had answers most of the time because those of us who worked there actually, you know, read. At least at our B&N, that woman would have been offered help and/or a recommendation by the time she landed in the Kids section.

You've Got Mail

It's a Look

This morning, after getting my driver's license renewed, I met a friend for coffee at a local mall that also houses a mineral makeup store for which we'd both bought Groupons. Because I knew I'd be getting my picture taken for my driver's license, I wore makeup (mineral foundation and veil, three colors of eyeshadow applied with a very restrained hand, a brow filler/tamer, mascara, and my typical blush). I should have known that perhaps this store wasn't for me when the make-up artist/saleswoman asked if I was wearing any makeup.

I told her that I wanted to try out her store because Bare Escentuals tends to build their product line around warm tones and I prefer cool ones. What do you suppose she did? Well, after putting foundation and a very brown bronzer on me, she loaded on eye shadows that she described as neutral—ie, browns—but in no way restrained. As for the blusher she used, it had already turned orange by the time she finished my eyes, so she removed it all to try again.

At this point I suggested a neutral look built around gray, but I guess I should have specified light gray, because her idea of a neutral gray eye featured charcoal gray over most of my lid, a teal color on the inner part of the eye, and a coppery yellow smack dab in the center of my lower and middle eyelid. At that point I said, as tactfully as possible, that this might be a fine "night" look, but she assured me it was perfect for daily wear.

In the end I used my Groupon for the foundation, mineral veil, an eyelid primer to cover my red lids, some brow filler, and a huge Kabuki brush that puts my BE Kabuki brush to shame. I picked up a new technique for loading the 'buki brush that I can't wait to try, but after walking in the door five minutes ago, I headed straight for the bathroom and scrubbed the whore off my face.

It's a Look

A Table...at Last!

We're heading out to Rhode Island tomorrow for a weekend-long family extravaganza. Because I knew this was coming, I planned for it, time-wise:

• I turned in my review to PW Editor B, due today, last Friday (in addition to my other PW review last week, for PW Editor A).
• I turned in my review of PW Editor A, due Monday, on Monday as planned, and started to read the book for the PW review due this upcoming Monday, also to PW Editor A, so that I would not need to worry about it this weekend, or face a last-minute review Monday morning before eleven.

Alas, my best laid plans were to write the review this afternoon, leaving me enough time for mani-pedi, trip to tailor to pick up hemmed trousers and slight damage repaired to a sweater/jacket I found on deep discount earlier in the week. It's 4:30 in the afternoon now, and I'm just home after a last-minute three-hour adventure. It'll be a late night tonight, but since I don't sleep the night before we fly anymore, I'll be up anyway.

As for that three-hour adventure, here's the story: World Market's online circular arrived in this morning's email, indicating a huge sale on dining room furniture. We've lived in our house for 22 or so years, and don't have a real dining room table and chairs. We always end up renting when we entertain, but the thought of possibly getting a terrific deal on something appealed to me so much that I went through the circular and sent my husband photos of four possible options that were approximately half off—at least—prices we'd seen in the design district.

Next I drove to the nearest World Market. Two of the four options looked better in the photos than in person, and of the other two, which were quite nice to look at and featured clean lines, only one had chairs I found both comfortable and appealing, and were made from a wood and in a finish I liked. Had we been working with the decorator we occasionally use, he might have steered us away from buying eight side chairs rather than buying six and finding two other arm chairs, but I made an executive decision: time to finally take the plunge.

To get the best price, I needed to buy the six-piece set (four chairs, extendable table, and bench), then add four more chairs—two as swap outs for the bench. We don't yet know where, or if, we'll even use the bench, but because of the sale, the store would not swap out the bench for two chairs so that we'd need to only buy two more to end up with eight.

Unfortunately, the sole table at the store was damaged, and after they spent a figurative eternity phoning around, they finally located the one table in all of Dallas county at a store about a half hour away. The other store, which had the table but no chairs or bench, put the table on hold for me, and I paid for all the seating while the managers arranged so that when I paid for the table at the other location, they'd refund the difference to give me the lowest price. We had to eat a second delivery charge, but I went on my merry way to the other store. Because of the high finance involved, it took three employees at each of the two stores to make the transaction work, and I've got my fingers crossed that on Monday the actual two deliveries will be correct...not to mention Amex requiring me to call in to unfreeze my card due to all the strange activity.

I'm quite happy with what I picked out, and happily anticipate a dining room furnished with a dining room table and chairs rather than the small conference table and Windsor chairs that moved with us from our first house back in the day. It would be wonderful to finally replace the china cabinet we inherited with our first house, but hopefully it won't take another 22 years to find one now that we have a style with which to work.

A Table...at Last!

Bulova Women's 96R000 Sport Marine Star Diamond Watch

Bulova Women's 96R000 Sport Marine Star Diamond Watch

Grade: A

I've been a Bulova lover for awhile now, ever since buying the Bulova Men's 98C62 Marine Star Watch as an inexpensive alternative to the Omega diving watch Daniel Craig wore in his first James Bond movie. While that watch is great, with its over-sized face, it's a sporty watch and for women, not quite suitable for dressier ensembles. As a result I began to look for a less casual watch, and once again found a Bulova to suit my sensibilities.

Read this review in its entirety at Amazon.

Bulova Women's 96R000 Sport Marine Star Diamond Watch

Smart Shopping

The other day I tweeted about a recent Bath and Body Works purchase that saved me beaucoup money. For years now I've used one of the "classics" that now can only be bought online or in B&BW outlets. As the only Texas outlet is five hours away, I wait until B&BW online has a sale, and order in bulk. But because I order in bulk, unless I can reduce shipping costs, I don't bother. Last week I was able to buy each $9.50 bottle of shower gel for $6.00, and after finding and using a $10 off coupon somewhere online and getting free shipping, I paid $54 for ten bottles, tax included, and shipping eliminated. Had I flat out bought ten bottles, I would have spent more than $110. As you may surmise, I was pretty impressed with myself.

I've become an coupon - online and otherwise - fiend in recent months. Last month when it came time to buy Rachael her College Wardrobe, she decided she wanted to shop at Old Navy. We have a Gap card, which means shopping at Old Navy on a Tuesday results in a 10% discount, excluding coupons. Online coupons I located provided $10 off of $50 worth of purchases and $5 off of $25 worth of purchases. The sales clerk was willing to take her time with me, allowing me to use to two each of the coupons as well as the card discount, and as a result, we'd saved $100 via five separate purchases.

Before Groupon came to Dallas, I heard about it somewhere, and both my husband and I signed up well before it kicked off locally. Both of us have bought some great stuff through it, although paying attention to expiration dates is key.

I have a bit of my dad and my mom in me when it comes to spending money; it's a constant push me/pull you. Both grew up in poverty during the Depression, but his philosophy was "you can't take it with you" while my mom's has always been to save as much as possible. It can be hilarious given her wealth to take her to one of the local dollar stores to buy water bottles and another to buy batteries, but after this afternoon's experience, I'm hardly one to talk.

I've written before about my sensitive skin, and how, after finding perfect skin care regimens, the companies either go out of business or change formulations. I don't have acne - never have - but most of what is sold for women in their 40s is too creamy and rich for me. Recently I bought a Proactiv kit at a kiosk in a local mall, and discovered that the new formulations are gentle enough for my skin, and actually get rid of the blackheads on my nose and the deep-under-skin congestion I get on my temples. But I'm not using all the products at the same rate, and decided to see where I could buy additional cleanser and toner the cheapest. Using the Kiosk for convenience and speed comes at too high a price. It took me almost two hours to get the best deal today, and had I not engaged in an online chat, I'd have missed it altogether.

You can buy lots of Proactiv at Amazon, via different sources, but many sources are selling the old formulation, and I could get what I wanted, with free shipping, but without a guarantee (using the photos accompanying each item) that I'd be getting the newer formulation. Scratch Amazon.

With eBay it was much the same. So...on to QVC, where the prices were good. I thought I'd found an online coupon that would give me free shipping - one of those where you click the coupon and it actually opens the store's site, and it's not until check-out that you see the discount - but I was mistaken. No free shipping today for what I was buying, so by the time I realized I'd not only be paying tax but shipping as well, I decided I could do better elsewhere.

Next it was the actual Proactiv website, which I'd briefly visited yesterday, only to dismiss it as an option because I thought I'd be able to do was buy one of two kits being sold, neither of which interested me because I needed to pick and choose from among products. I returned today for further investigation and discovered I could do an online chat, during which I learned I could buy individual items, greatly discounted, btw, but only if I bought a kit first and became a member. As she and I chatted, I opened a new browser window to look up shipping and tax in their FAQ, saw there would be no tax added on, and shipping far more reasonable than QVC's. Yes, I'd have to buy a basic kit, but given the almost sample sizes, decided it would be perfect for that one-quart airline baggie allowed in airplane carry-on luggage. Five minutes later, after buying the smallest kit, I went back to the Proactiv website, where I accessed the catalog and bought the two items I wanted, which will last for two months, for a grand total of $30.89 (shipping included) versus $41.94 at QVC (which includes shipping but not the sales tax I'd be charged).

Once my first order actually ships - in a day or so - I'll be able to go into my Proactiv account and cancel the future automatic shipments so that I can continue to order piecemeal what I need. In the olden days - BSP (before smart phones) - that would have been a hassle, but with my phone's calendar (which syncs with Google calendar since I use a Droid), if I'm unable to cancel all future shipments, I can schedule cancellations easily and timely.

Now it's time to print out some Ulta coupons so I can buy some new nail polish. The Opi I bought years ago still does its job, but I'm running out.

Smart Shopping

Artisinal

I went to my local mall today to take a look at some great leather bags Fossil sells for men. My husband has a variety of briefcases, but after watching him tote around his backpack for the past couple of months as he prepared for trial, I decided he deserved something nicer. And since he won his case, I bumped up my schedule.

These Fossil bags are vintage-y looking, and there was one messenger bag in particular that I've had my eye on for a couple of months now. By today I'd saved enough - including a paycheck on the way from PW - to actually buy one, although it wasn't the one I thought I'd buy. As I pulled into the parking lot this afternoon outside Nordstrom, it surprised me to see it so full. Then, while walking past the Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo on my way to the Fossil store, it struck me how out-of-whack I find this whole is-it-a-recession-or-isn't-it? People spending $600 for a 3G iPad, $700 on a pair of pumps, a thousand dollars on a handbag, and I'm stressing out about my comparatively inexpensive purchase so much that it took me two months to work up to it.

After buying the Dayton Messenger Bag and taking it to my husband's office to surprise him, I realized I'd gotten an email from Austin Art Glass, the gallery where last winter we bought three gorgeous pieces we hung in our dining room. Being incredibly stoopid at times, I'd managed to break one last week, and immediately called the gallery about getting a replacement. (When we bought the pieces, Aaron Glass, the artist/gallery owner, told me if we ever broke one, they'd replace it.) I was stunned - and not in a good way - to learn that the gallery may be forced to close because business is so terrible.

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am an art glass fiend. My husband and I had to actually put ourselves on a glass ban several years ago, only broken when I discovered Austin Art Glass in February. The pieces we bought are gorgeous, and incredibly affordable, and to think that the gallery may close had me asking myself...why in the hell are people running around spending so much money on brand name luxury items instead of buying amazing artisanal creations that bring true beauty into the world?

After I'd spoken to Aaron's wife last week, I emailed a jpg of our small installation, indicating which of the three pieces we'd like to replace (it's the beautiful teal one). Today's email from the gallery included a photo of an entirely new installation, with two pieces similar in color and shape to the ones I didn't break, along with a third piece to make up for the broken one. And the price tag attached to all three nearly broke my heart...they were willing to practically give it away.

I wrote back and said I thought they'd misunderstood my e-mail...I only needed one piece, not three, and would never want to take advantage of them, but if they were willing to do three for the price suggested, could they switch out the other two so we'd end up with five distinct in color and shape pieces? And, if they'd misunderstood and thought I'd broken all of them and we wanted replacements for each of the three - hence the great price - what price would they charge for replacing one and selling us two more?

A few minutes ago Aaron Gross wrote back and said they'd be glad to stick to the original price quote because they appreciated our support. He'll send us additional photos soon so we can choose.

If you live in Central Texas, drive into Austin and on SoCo (1608 South Congress, to be exact), visit Aaron Glass at Austin Art Glass. Or take a look at the online art gallery and give him a call. I'd suggest you "shop" via the Etsy store they've set up, but they haven't actually "stocked" it yet. He's incredibly talented, and if you have Dale Chihuly tastes and a regular person's budget, you can't go wrong. Let's see if we can't support his fantastic gallery.

Artisinal

When a Train Wrecks, People Get Hurt

In early July I mentioned that most of Bare Escentuals' colors are formulated for women with warm skin tones. Suzi McGowen commented about a line of mineral make-up with lots of cool toned choices that I'd never heard of - Aromaleigh. I visited the site and saw it was preparing to shut down. I didn't want to build up an attachment to something soon to disappear, so I stopped looking. Then, when FragranceX, a website that supposedly carries discontinued BE could not fill my order for Heaven blush, I decided to take a second look at Aromaleigh.

Soon I had three brand new blushes, heavily discounted due to the going-out-of-business sale, that were all in my color way, and at that point I thought to myself, "Why is this woman going out of business after twelve years?"

Both before and after my vacation last month, I alternated between investigating and ordering eye shadows, which were even more heavily discounted in the last two weeks. Tonight at midnight the website turns off its lights for good, and I am strangely bereft. Not because I'll need mineral makeup any time in the near future, but because of what I learned...and what I still do not know.

Did site owner Kristen Bell use unapproved ingredients in some eyeshadows? One group - whose members set up a forum ostensibly to provide a forum for all mineral make-up users to rant even though their intention, allegedly (and there is evidence of this), was to rant against Aromaleigh - says yes. Kristen Bell's defenders say they were told by FDA employees that the site was victim of a witch hunt.

Did Aromaleigh's owner fuck up with an overly complex point program, some iffy customer service, and erratic personal blogging? It looks like the answer to all three is yes. Staffing issues, a death in the family, and a divorce...in all likelihood these matters contributed to some Bad Behavior, but compounding these personal problems were some women who decided they needed proof of her suffering, and by doing so, caused more suffering, and probably more erratic choices.

In the end all I know is this: I placed five orders in the last two months, during a period when Aromaleigh's owner was trying to get rid of inventory by using ingredients to mix probably a hundred and fifty shades of eyeshadows and forty shades of foundation in three formulations, and experienced terrific and personalized service, and near-immediate delivery. There's a whole lot involved in running a business that ships internationally, and hordes of the site's international and/or institutional customers, worried about order fulfillment, began filing premature claims with Paypal, resulting in thousands of dollars taken from the business account and presumably held in escrow in the interim. I don't envy Kristen Bell's life over the last two months, and in some way feel a kinship with her as a person who made some mistakes and suffered some very public consequences.

All that said, had I been a customer made to feel guilt over the mention of poor service, if I felt blown off after questioning the safety of a product, no doubt I'd feel somewhat differently. After all, look at how publicly I've announced my anger toward Penguin books, but Penguin is a large corporate entity and not a small business. Then too, I'm not out to close Penguin down...I just want them to treat their ebook customers as they treat their print customers.

So it's not quite an apples to apples thing.

As midnight approaches on the East Coast - it's slightly less than an hour away - my thoughts are with Aromaleigh and its owner, and some disgruntled customers who apparently played a part in its closing down. I'm reminded of some instances in my own online past and some individuals who caused me personal pain as a result of my public position. I didn't lose my livelihood as a result and therefore cannot truly know how Kristen Bell feels, but I do wish her luck in the future and hope she finds a creative outlet for her talent.

When a Train Wrecks, People Get Hurt

Spending Spree

Yesterday I tweeted that I'd put myself on a Starbucks ban for a year in order to pay off the jewelry I bought during our cruise last week to Mexico. None of the pieces alone are very expensive, but even after dickering, which resulted in a pair of "free" earrings, it all added up. Although each piece was worth it, I liken the overall experience to binge eating. After years of deprivation and scaling back, I went a little crazy.

It appears as though, after all these years, my "thing" is watches. For my husband it's long been pens, and his collection is gorgeous. My watch collection consists of a few expensive watches given to me as a teenager - none of which I've actually worn in almost twenty years - along with a couple of inexpensive Swatch watches I bought in the middle-late 80s, and before this summer, an equally old Fossil watch now belonging to my daughter. And...no...I will not give her the expensive ones, even if I don't wear them, no matter how much she begs. She can wait until I'm dead for those.

But, as always, I digress. After discovering the quite costly "Omega watch of my dreams" a couple of years ago, I attempted to locate a reasonably priced version. I found one - a man's watch - but the face, at 40mm, was too large for me, or so I thought, and the woman's version was not large enough. In the end I bought not one watch, but two. The blog entry I linked to earlier depicts the first watch I bought...which I later gifted to my daughter when I located the second watch (view on the right), which has been my actual day-to-day watch ever since, on deep discount at Kohl's. The craze for women wearing large-faced watches was just about to hit, so my buying a man's watch turned out to be a very good thing.

In addition to this diving watch, which glows in the dark and allows me to tell time in the middle of the night when I'm not sleeping, I have a tank-style watch from Talbot's that I've owned for many years. So my actual collection consisted of just two wearable watches. Now I've got three...the third I bought on sale on the cruise ship, and while the price I paid was less than what it sells for at Zappos, I didn't quite get the deal I thought. Still, it's lovely - a little blingy - and out of the ordinary, and you can see it to the left. Apparently I go for big watches, which is odd because my taste in jewelry otherwise tends toward the delicate.

I love tanzanite, and I love opals, and the combination of both is irresistible. My first pair of tanzanite earrings were bought on a cruise to Alaska with my extended family in 2003. At that time tanzanite offered a terrific opportunity for buying a gemstone that often looked like sapphire, but at a much lower price. Since there is only one tanzanite mine and it will be completely barren by 2020, prices have steadily risen over the years; it remains far less costly than sapphire, but it's no longer all that affordable, which is why I've moved on to iolite, a gorgeous stone, but one mined in fairly small pieces so that while the jewelry made from it is lovely, it's more lovely for the design than any single stone. My husband bought me a gorgeous, delicate necklace a few years ago with small, oval stones attached to strands of white gold chain, and I am consistently complimented on it as it rarely leaves my neck, but the possibility of finding tanzanite and opal together in Mexico really got my juices flowing, and when I hit the stores in Puerto Vallerta, I went into overload almost immediately.

But when Abraham at the seventh store didn't have quite what I was looking for in terms of color and cut, he sent me to his brother down the way, and even then, the brother needed to run between three stores to help me find just the right pieces. I'd gone in looking specifically for one ring, but ended up with a bracelet as well, then "free" mystic green topaz earrings, and on the way out the door, a second ring, so deeply discounted he practically threw it at me.

 

 

I realize that dickering is part of the game, and even though I'd knocked the price of that second ring down by two-thirds, I'm sure I could have spent even less, but in the end, it's the jewelry I'll have, and while I can tell the story of the free earrings and the ring for a third of the original price, those bragging rights aren't nearly as important. Yes, I would likely have benefitted from having my daughter with me to possibly curb some impulses, but she failed to show at the appointed time and place to leave the ship - even with a half-hour grace period - so what could I do? She turned up by the time I returned to the ship two hours later, and I went back out with her so she could buy some of her own trinkets.

Included in that shorter visit - she just doesn't have my stamina - was a trip to Tanzanite International, where I saw the most stunning 20 karat stone that one would presumably buy simply as an investment. She fell in love with orange and red sapphires, which I didn't know existed, but they are as costly as the deep blue ones I adore, so we moved on. By the time we got back onboard, I'd bought her an adorable hat and she'd picked up a pair of RayBans, which satisfied her "thing" - sunglasses - as well as some "pile it on the forearm until there's no room left" bracelets and a necklace.

Yesterday morning I stopped at Starbucks for my last hurrah before taking her into the doctor, and after two sips, she asked what I'd gotten. I told her it was a plain latte and before I could stop her, she took a sip, meaning that my last hurrah ended before it began. Protestations aside, my choice to have her throw it out when she decided not to drink it herself was a good one because she was diagnosed with tonsillitis an hour later.

Actually, though, I'll have two more hurrahs in about a week. At the airport at LAX before boarding our plane back home, I tried to buy a latte. They charged me for two, and ten minutes later, when they still could not credit my Starbucks card, it was time to get on the plane. Yesterday when I called Starbucks to get a credit, I was told they could not do that, but instead would send me two coupons. When they arrive I plan to selfishly hoarde them, and in the interim, my husband will teach me how to use our espresso machine with which he makes me delicious lattes. I figure in a year I'll have paid for my spending spree...it was worth it.

And now it's time for me to start writing the five reviews for books I read on my Kindle last week.

Spending Spree