Playing house.

I woke up feeling like crap today - sore throat, stuffy head, general not great-ness. I chalked it up to being awake before 6:00 a.m., but still made it to the gym and to the early morning meeting. Once I got to my desk and started working, it hit me that I was having a truly off day, making stupid mistakes, getting irritated at things that didn't matter, and just feeling icky. Around 2:00, I decided to throw in the towel and call it a day. I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea, keeping one eye on my inbox and the other eye on the recording of last night's American Idol elimination (later, Scotty!).

Ginger started giving me the stink eye for not taking her on a walk, so around 6:30 I acquiesced. Neil caught up with us when we were just down the street, and we had a family stroll through Hillsboro Village. A display of wedding bands in the window of Natural Selection caught Neil's eye, and I encouraged him to pop in and try some stuff on. Ginger and I stayed outside, but soon we were invited in by the lovely Robin, who owns the shop, and she let us touch all the rings (which not something any other jeweler has let us do), trusting us with the trays even when she stepped in the back to grab some paperwork. She also loved Ginger, who tried many times to escape my hold to basically eat the store kitty, Mrs. Valentine.

Neil found a ring he loved, so we bought it. The price was just about what I had wanted to spend, and I felt good about supporting a local business owner. She also cleaned my engagement ring, gave us a darling (that's really the only way to describe it) little print about being a dog-lover and a tub of jewelry cleaner, then(!) gave me the sweetest little pinky ring made out of a worn out Mercury dime. I adore it. Go to Natural Selection, people. Robin has cool stuff, likes animals, and is just as nice as nice can be.

Now Neil and I are sitting across from each other, typing away on our respective laptops, wearing our wedding bands just for practice. We're both like oh, so this is how it feels to be married.