Affirming Adjectives at Gordon's Jewelers

My official (and receipt-verified) alibi in visiting the mall that Saturday was to purchase a little black dress for graduation. (Sigh. The sedate life of a programmer with access to free junk food has caused my girth to exceed the waist of my flirtatious, loyal LBD of five years.) Unofficially, I was also doing a little ring gazing to verify that I knew my opinions on various rings. I've never permitted myself to gaze upon the shiny rings in stores save with a prospective bride lest I be tempted by the sparkles to run off an marry some pansy I find in a random park. Sparkles are evil, you know.

I was drawn into Gordon's because the shopkeepers were busy with other customers. I also think I'm biased towards women salespersons, and they had three. I don't know why that bias would exist. Maybe I'm just more accustomed to looking at sparklies with women rather then men-folk. I looked at the rings for awhile, and then I asked the salesperson for a set of their sizing rings so I could figure out my size. Of course, she noticed which finger I was sizing. I then asked, "My boyfriend wants to choose the ring. Do you have any tips on how to guide him towards the right style?" Her response, "Let's go shopping."

The salesperson, Renee, led me to a ring case and began having me try on rings. With each ring she dutifully prompted, "Why?" each time I selected, compared, or rejected a ring. Sometimes I couldn't quite place why. "I don't like this one because my eye is drawn to the edge of the ring rather than the center." "I like the symmetry of this one better." "This one is shiny without being too sparkly." (Its possible I have an aversion to sparkliness because I spend a minimum of ten hours a day with my hands outstretched in front of me and sparkly rings tend to draw my eye away from my computer monitors.)

We progressed through each ring case looking at the rings that suited my style and occasionally throwing in a random ring for comparison. Renee kept a running lists of adjectives for my likes and for my dislikes. At the last case she started comparing very similar rings as she determined which size of gem I liked the best. In the end, she wrote down the serial number of the ring I liked the best. (It's a sad commentary on my finickiness that I'd only really like one ring in the entire store.)

From this excursion I learned a few new things about my tastes in rings. I learned that I like V-tip prongs and prefer a half carat princess-cut on my slender finger. I also learned that I was pretty right about my ring opions, or at least I'd ingrained my opinions enough into me that I still applied them when I actually looked at rings. I also learned that I like a 1/2 carat diamonds when princess cut, but prefer 3/4 carat diamonds when round cut.

Overall, Renee was quite helpful even though she didn't make a sale that day. The cases at Gordon's Jewelers were well-lit and clean. The shop at Barton Creek Mall seemed to me to have a classic feel to its decorations, but that may just be that the store had dark wood and relied on the cases to provide much of the illumination. Interestingly, the atmosphere of Gordon's Jewelers is a contrast to the modern, slick and commercial feel of its parent-company, Zales. The selection of rings was better than a few other mall stores I popped into (i.e. Ben Bridge, Kays), but I wonder if the selection is identical to Zales itself.

Follow-up. I went by the mall again this week (8/Oct/9) and this shop looked exactly like any other ring shop in the mall. Maybe their lights were out that day. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly. Anyway, good people, and a few nice rings.

Follow-up Part 2. Wm commented that I never told him the 3/4 for the round - only that I told him 1/2 for princess. Sure enough, I didn't. I had wondered that round looks smaller on my finger than I had recalled, but I figured that was just a faulty memory. Regardless of the karats of the diamond, I still love my ring.