A new wedding ring.

So let me tell you what happened yesterday.

We woke up late and walked to the beach. Tyler ran into the ocean with his surf board and surfed while I sat in the sand soaking up the sun.  About an hour later Tyler comes out of the water looking a little funny.  He approaches me and holds up his left hand.  Something’s missing. That something is his wedding ring.

I was a little upset. Not at Tyler because obviously he didn’t mean to lose his wedding ring.  But I was upset because it was the ring I’d given him when we said our vows.  It was a nice ring.  It was a sentimental ring.  And for Pete’s sake it was only 2 years old! I was a little ferclempt as Tyler’s mom would say. We packed up and walked home with the intention of going to Stone Harbor to look for a new ring.

We wanted to buy something plain and inexpensive.  My thought was that if Tyler could lose his ring once, it was likely that he would lose it again.  So we walked in and out of every gift shop and jewelry store in town looking for a plain silver band—or really any male rings for that matter.  We found a nice ring in a fancy jewelry store for $200.  I knew that Tyler’s original ring was only $100, and I didn’t think dropping that kind of cash was necessary.  Everywhere we went people seemed surprised that we would be looking for men’s rings.  Having worked in a gift shop that sells men’s rings, I don’t think it should be so surprising that a man would want an inexpensive piece of jewelry.  Finally we walked into a shop called “It’s all About Me.”  We told our sad tale to the owner and he said that he had a second location across the street that sold plenty of men’s rings.  He said that he would call ahead and tell them that any ring we wanted we could have for $30.  Our spirits lifted, we crossed the street and Tyler began trying on rings.  He found a steel ring that he really liked and I thought, “yay! and it’s only $30.”  While he was busy trying them on, the owner walked over.  We got to talking and we told him that we were musicians.  He happened to be a guitar player and a big supporter of indie music.  As we were about to check out he said, “I’m going to give this to you for $10.  You’re starving musicians.  I support the arts.”  We were blown away.  We gave him a bunch of cds as a thank you and he said he would spread the word about us.

I’m still sad that Tyler’s new wedding ring isn’t the original.  But I’m happy that someone was so nice to us and wants to spread the word about what we’re doing.  It never ceases to amaze me when people show us kindness like that.