The Gala

Last night was the hospital Gala - aka the annual "Society Gala" - doesn't that sound impressive? This year Ryan was in charge. He booked Don Felder, former lead guitarist for the Eagles (he wrote Hotel California, among other hits for the band) for the entertainment. The evening was a huge success for the hospital, raising almost $200,000. That's unbelievable in this economy!





We have great next-door neighbors. They are a wonderful people with an adorable daughter around Zachary's age. The kids LOVE to play together. Our neighbors own a jewelry store, which is so fun because they love to wheel & deal. They found a necklace that Ryan got me for the birth of Evan. Their store specializes in high end estate jewelry. They offered to "jewel" me for the Gala. Um, OK! They inquired about my dress, then asked if I thought yellow diamonds and south sea pearls would work! Gee, I'm sure I could make those work!

So this is what $32,000 pearls look like. I have the matching earrings on, but I decided not to wear the matching ring - opting for the yellow diamond right hand ring instead. I'm conspiring with my neighbors to get the ring for Christmas. I'm not getting my hopes up because, although they insist they can give Ryan the deal of the century, I don't think Ryan wants to make anymore big purchases given the state of the economy. If the Dow would just rebound. C'mon, mama wants some bling!! It was sad taking all those diamonds back this morning.

On a related thought, why couldn't my parents have owned a jewelry store? I had extra opportunities with my parents divorced and both remarried. Why couldn't just one of them owned a jewelry store? Or a Mercedes dealership? Ok, I'm just kidding. Sort of.

The kids did well last night with my longtime sitter, Karen. She got both kids to bed with a minimum of trouble. Evan's not crazy about taking a bottle (although it is breastmilk) so I was concerned he wouldn't go to sleep easily. But Karen has the magic touch and everything went great.