Ring around the rosey.

Me and Dani at Tiffany's.

This entry is going to make the mom readers very excited.

The other day Dan asked me what kind of engagement ring I would like, and I had no idea what to tell him. I've never been a woman rushing to get married, I don't have my entire wedding planned out and I have never been a ring person. I don't even wear rings. Whenever someone gets engaged in the office, I never run over and look at her hand. I always make a point to look at her face and express my happiness about her decision to get married, not my excitement that her boyfriend bought a rock for her finger.

I asked my friends what I should do, and they told me that I should go to Tiffany's to try on rings to get an idea of what I want, and then Dan can take the design to a jeweler and pay a normal price for it. Apparently, no one really buys anything at Tiffany's. It's just inspiration.

Still, I felt a little weird about the whole thing. So I asked my friend Dani if she could help me. Today, on a rainy Saturday, we met at Tiffany's where I tried on nearly every engagement ring in the place. I am so glad I brought Dani because she was all business--pointing through the glass at rings I should try and asserting her opinion--yes or no--right away.

Lucky for Dan, I found out that big diamonds look strange on my thin fingers. I also figured out that the square-shaped diamonds I admired on my friends looked harsh on me. There were two rings--somewhat different looks--that I liked very much and felt completely natural on my hand. They just seemed right. The woman at the counter circled them in the book. Dani was beaming.

We rambled around Fifth Avenue and peeked into some more jewelry stores, tried on some more rings, but they all started looking looking the same to me and none matched the "rightness" of the other two.

I came home so excited, I was jumping up and down. It's like all these years I have been repressing the excitement that comes with getting a really nice piece of jewelry. Of course, Dan rolled his eyes at me and sighed deeply after seeing the Tiffany prices and tried to maintain my expectations.

Then over a steak dinner, Dan told me, "Well, now I am going to have to wait a long to time ask you to get married so you forget what the ring looks like."

Sorry moms. It's not that time yet.