Sunday, February 8, 2009

With this ring...ugh.

Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are fuzzy. All of them. And they weren't even taken on the same camera or at the same time. This is proof that my photography skills have not improved, even though I have a better camera. Alas.


This is my engagement ring. (The whole wedding set, actually.)













I think I took this right after we got married. Anyway, I love my engagement ring. LOVE it. It's beautiful and Marcus picked it out all on his own and it's perfect. I bent the prongs around the diamond once and the diamond fell out into my laundry basket, but then we got it re-set in a four-prong setting instead of the weaker six-prong setting it originally had. It looks gorgeous sitting atop my wedding band and is super-sparkly.


That was my engagement ring right after we got married.


Here is my engagement ring now.














This actually happened two weeks ago, but until now, I just haven't wanted to talk about it. It makes me want to cry. Here's what happened.
About 4 months into my pregnancy, my finger got too fat to wear my engagement ring, so I put it away and just wore my wedding band. I should point out that my engagement ring is a size 5, my wedding band a 5 1/4. Why I didn't get my engagement ring re-sized to fit on top of my band, I don't know. I'm sure it was partially laziness and partially money, or lack thereof. Anyway, it was never a problem before I got pregnant. SO. Everyone knows I swelled up like a balloon at the end of my pregnancy and my fingers never quite got back to their usual shape and size, what with losing most of my baby weight, then gaining again, then losing again. But I HAVE lost some and my wedding ring has been sliding around a lot. Two weeks ago I noticed that my wedding band had spend most of the day facing backwards. (It has channel-set diamonds and I had been seeing the back of the ring.) I thought to myself "WOW! I must have lost enough weight to get my fingers back to normal! I wonder if my engagement ring will fit?!?!" So upstairs I went. I got my engagement ring out of the jewelry box and slipped it, almost effortlessly, onto my finger. I was so happy to see it there again. I ran downstairs to show Marcus. Then I tried to take it off. You can guess the rest.
Here's the part where we talk about all the different ways people and the internet tell you to get a stuck ring off of your finger.
SOAP. Should make it slippery, right? Not enough.
LOTION. Tried three different kinds. None of them worked. The ring would turn around, but wouldn't move up and off.
PREPARATION H. It's an anti-inflammatory, right?
COOKING OIL. See lotion.
BUTTER. See cooking oil.
KY JELLY. See Jen blush that her dad knows what that is.
WINDEX. Apparently it's a miracle worker. Every website I visited (and you'd be amazed at how many there are) said to spray your finger with Windex and the ring would twist off in less than a minute. Of course, I was out of Windex, so I tried the other options first. Eventually, after the other options FAILED, I went to the store for Windex. By this time, I'd been smearing stuff on my finger and pulling at the ring for almost two hours. My finger was turning very red and getting chafed. We gave it the ole college try, but Windex, too, failed me.

SO...off to the jewelry store I went where a nice lady cut my ring off my finger with a tiny saw. And then I cried.
Poor Marcus. I think we've officially reached the "this thing has cost more for repairs than it cost for me to buy it" point. I haven't dared to ask when we can get it fixed.

8 comments:

AJU5's Mom said...

I had ot cut a ring off my finger ones - I just used wire cutters - I haven't worn the ring much since (because I am not a big ring/jewelry wearer), but I can differently guess how upset you were!

Anonymous said...

Wait until your daddy reads this post.

J

Heather said...

Aww, honey - I'm sorry. :( I know that has to be so sad. Isn't it weird how easily rings slide on, then get stuck and refuse to move? You'd think if it went on, it'd come off, right?

Daniel said...

Jen, this is hilarious. I mean I know that it is terribly sad. But the tone is hilarious.

Did you try ice?

And maybe you and Marcus just arent "ring" people. Perhaps tattoos??

I Love You!

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your ring. I know that had to be sad to have it cut. I almost had a similar experience in Belks one day. I was trying on rings on my index finger and one got stuck, I thought I'd have to buy it just to turn around and get it cut off. Finally, after much tugging and a little lotion from the sales clerk, it came off.
Auntie M

By the way, what day is good for a birthday lunch this week?

Hotch Potchery said...

I am so sorry. I would have said put your hand into a bowl of icey icey water...but I guess too late now.

Ugh. But it did make for one hell of a blog post, and that is all that really matters, no?

Brianne Hudgins Photography said...

I haven't worn my engagement & wedding band together since the + popped up on the EPT (11 months ago) ~ I'm terrified of that exact situation!!

The saw didn't hurt? I've always wondered how they do that!

(My friend swears that you can tie dental floss around your finger - behind the ring - slowly pull the floss & the ring will come off too. Sounds painful as all hades to me though.)

Jen L. said...

I tried the dental floss trick--didn't work.

Also soaked my hand in a bowl of icy water for 10 minutes (hypothermia, anyone?)--didn't work.

The saw didn't hurt--there's a litle metal piece that slips between your finger and the ring and the saw hits that instead of your skin. What hurt was bending it with pliers (oh, my heart just dropped) to get it off my nasty, swollen finger!