Green With Envy

I love Ice dot com.

Don't get me wrong, I really don't wear a lot of jewelry. Couldn't afford it for one thing. Don't get that dressed up very often for another.

However, I do like peridots and garnets, even though my birthstone is diamond. But diamonds are insanely expensive, and the politics of their mining is atrocious, so along with the stone comes all my liberal guilt baggage.

Add to that, I'm a hard one to buy gifts for as I don't have "normal" taste in things. If it's pink and pastel and girly, or heart shaped, I'm not gonna swoon when the lid comes off the box. Oh, I'll make all the right noises. But you won't ever see me wearing it. If you want to know the sorts of things I fall for, I watched the first Matrix, entranced. Why? Trinity's boots.

So a couple of weeks ago, I got a promotional e-mail from Ice dot com, and this was front and center:


I shrieked, and then shrieked again when I saw that it was under $75, For A Limited Time Only after the Promotional Extra 20% Off. Black granite. White gold. Peridot. Black silk cord, but I bet it would be easy to replace it with a leather one... "Mine! Mine! Mine!" like the seagulls in "Finding Nemo".

Only I click on the necklace, and the page won't load. Won't! Load! I grumble and go to bed. The next day, still won't load. Try my other computer, and finally get the page to load, only they're OUT OF STOCK!

Okay, I tell myself. Don't panic. The fine print in the e-mail says the offer is good until the end of September. I check back the next day, page won't load. The day after that, loads but out of stock. The day after that, page won't load. The day after...

After about nine days (eight and a half days longer than Instant-Gratification Woman (TM) usually lasts), I get fed up and call Ice dot com. Explain that the page won't load. He can't even find it in their computer, so he has me send him the promotional e-mail.

"Oh. Yeah. There it is. We're out of those right now, unfortunately. Sorry." He really is being very kind and helpful, yet somehow inexplicably is not Telling Me What I Want To Hear. I hate it when that happens.

"Okay." I do some deep breathing. "Fine. Thank you for checking. Do you know when you're getting more?"

He comes back and says six to eight weeks.

"Ah." I bite back my first, second and third response. Because this is, of course, Not His Fault. "After your sale is over."

"Yes. Sorry."

That word again!

But I still checked back. Every day. Because I am stubborn and I like to pretend the universe would not taunt me like that. Page won't load, out of stock, page won't load...

And then Saturday, 1 am! The page loads and...

In five to seven business days, it will be mine. All mine! And at the sale price, no less. I envy me, being me, just for today.

Now if I can just find a pair of these...