My Town

Today was filled to overflowing, divided between community activities, errands, and pool time for les babes. The errands included the post office (shipping an eBay sale), the bank (cashing in some savings bonds), the quilt store (see if they had a certain pattern I wanted to try), the lamp store (get a lamp rewired for the sitting room), Giant Eagle (turn in some dry cleaning and earn some more Get Go gas points), Barnes & Noble (snack, books for kids, Real Simple mag to see about writing contest, and potty break), and jewelry/pawn shop to divest myself of three carat diamond ring. I know, that's just your idea of the ideal Saturday. Wait, I'm not done.

On the community activities side, there was the Farmer's Market at the UU Church where B&R played one pin bowling (okay, you work with what you have—we had one water bottle in the car) with Gillian and I visited with my new friends. Then there was the Pig Iron Press North Phelps Street Festival where we ate hot dogs and watched the clowns go by. No really, clowns. And people we knew. Chris. Crissy. Ray.

We came home to two hours in the pool for the babes while I drafted idea number one for the writing contest, then had blackened pizza with their dad (I guess he's no better a cook than his mom - what a bumper!), then read a new book in bed. An altogether delightful day.

I want to focus on two aspects of the day.

#1. The street festival. This one-block-long slice of Americana seemed carved out of the 70s or 80s. The boom box played Huey Lewis and the News, then local poets got up and recited their creations. It was a beautiful place to be, and I felt privileged to be witnessing this event. Kudos to Jim Vallani, Phil Kidd, Dr. Ray Beiersdorfer and all who helped organize this event. Next year I will come, dressed cooler, and plan to stay longer. This is the sort of event that makes Youngstown a unique place to live. I was trying to imagine what other town you would see an event such as this. Maybe in Winter Park, FL, near Rollins, but probably not. Winter Park is too chic. Not Madison, WI. Madison is too big. Maybe Takoma Park, MD. Maybe some university town in Iowa. It was just . . . special. It was special. If you don't like that word to describe it, give me a better one!

#2. Anyone who has been reading this blog over the past month knows I'm living in the worst that the mortgage industry and the real estate market has to offer at this time in American history. I'm reexamining every possession and every practice as I try to cover two short sales—one for $25K and one for $40K. Today I sold a my beautiful three carat diamond solitaire.

Anyone who has tried to sell an expensive piece of jewelry will tell you that you never get out of it what you put into it. Jewelry is not an investment. And this piece of jewelry was absolutely not an investment, due to the disreputable jeweler who took advantage of me once I was no longer trading with him under the umbrella of EEFFH's millionaire checkbook.

I had thought of trying to sell this stone on eBay, but was very concerned with trying to deal with that amount of money in that venue. Then, too, trying to insure the stone to ship it was worrying me. What would prevent the buyer from saying the stone was not in the package when it arrived (even though it was). How was I going to get payment? And so on. There were just too many variables that were too scary to me.

So this afternoon when I turned onto Market Street in Boardman, looking for another store, and saw Ace Diamond & Jewelry Brokers at 7110 Market Street, I thought I'd just go in and discuss the situation with them.

I recommend this company and Dom Eckman without reservation. He was completely honest and straightforward with me, explained lots of options, listened to my sad-sack situation, came up with a solution that was agreeable to both of us, and wrote me a check on the spot. When my grandchildren were getting restless, he signalled one of his colleagues to bring lollipops, and a little later small bottles of cold water.

Everyone who interacted with us at Ace was friendly, kind and knowledgeable. These people and this store are an asset to this community. If you are in the market for a piece of jewelry, please visit them first.

And if you're keeping tabs on my current tally (why do I feel like Jerry Lewis on Labor Day?), I think I'm right around $36,500. Tomorrow I'll go through the rest of my jewelry and see what old gold I have that I no longer wear. I also have some handcrafted goodies that are going on eBay. At the last resort I will turn to my IRA. I have about two more weeks.