It's the fossilized shell of a squidesque beastie that lived in the late Cretaceous (IIRC) period and which died out with the dinosaurs. The shells of those guys were apparently made of something very much like the stuff that makes pearls, but the fossilizing of their shells makes them all opalescent and gorgeous and rainbow-glittery.
Imagine the darkest, reddest amber you can, and then shoot green and yellow through it. That's ammolite. It's amazing. It's also found only in a very few places, from Utah to Saskatchewan, and around my neck.
Yes, friends and neighbors, this is mine. (Dry-washes hands, cackles.) It's a craptastic picture, but I was shooting and shooing a cat away at the same time.
Der Alter Jo and I were looking at this piece at a street fair, and I walked away.
Then I doubled back, with DAJ giggling with glee, and handed over my bank card. I knew that if I didn't get it, I would think about it forever, just like I do with a necklace I passed over in Alberta lo these many years ago.
In other news, things at the new NCCU are. . . . .well. Exciting? Thrilling? Slap-yo-mama-type fun? Sure: let's just call it that and leave it alone. I'll tell you: if it's not a stroke that takes out one entire side of your body, or a brain problem that leaves you face-blind (I passed over "prosopagnosia" and then typed "face-bling," which is what I've got around my neck, yo), or a previously-undescribed demyelinating disorder, we ain't got it. It's been one of those weeks where residents and nurses high-five one another over lab results, in other words.
Best moment of the week, and possibly of my entire life ever, came when one of my coworkers, who teaches jazz and ballet on the side, spun around in her chair to answer an intern's question. The thing was, she had her left ankle behind her head at the time, as she was trying to stretch out a cramp in her glutes. I had just put an empty accordian folder on my head as a hat and was humming to myself, and one of the midlevels was playing Bejeweled on her phone. It was Anything Can Happen Day in the NCCU.
I really think that shows like "Scrubs" and "House" are/were great for hospital staff. People get used to seeing craziness on TV, and it doesn't bother them nearly as much when they encounter it in real life. Unless, like that intern, they're just looking for the nearest vending machine.
I am guessing one thing they WON'T see on your unit is that necklace. Unless you've finally, completely lost your mind.
ReplyDeleteI always loved those "Anything Can Happen Days"...
ReplyDeleteCheers ~
Cooleasse necklace!!
ReplyDeleteNice ammolite (you think you've seen everything, then you type "Nice ammolite"....)! Yes, I know what it is.... I do now, anyway.
ReplyDeleteNew folks expect hell on earth or totalitarian bedlam from TV & movies re Psych units - they expect a guy dressed like Napoleon, or maybe Hannibal Lechter or some nightmare out of Shutter Island, big goons with bow ties, shock treatments given from a rolling cart at random just for 'looking at me funny,' a 'back ward' where you never leave again - something like that.
They meet the real deal - us and our guests - and they're generally so relieved, we get along just fine. Yes, the media does help us, in its own way...
Um, no I didn't know about ammolite. Thanks a LOT!!! I'm not typically a jewelry person, but this is GORgeous!
ReplyDeleteFrom this artist/nurse I thank you for going back to satisfy Der Alter Jo. Thank you dear one for supporting and appreciating what is lovingly handcrafted. Must have cost you a chunk of money but it's well worth it.
ReplyDeleteHere in Western KY I don't see any ballerina/nurse types swiveling in their chairs, leg aloft overhead, conversing with said doctors. Folks are still conservative enough I'm sure that kind of behavior is against some policy. But, I did have a PA do a little bouncy dance step for me the other day while I was updating him and the hospitalist on one of their patients, so we must be moving in the right direction.
Your new statement necklace??!! Only one word: *B.R.E.A.T.H.T.A.K.I.N.G.*, (and I'm also another who's typically not a big "jewelry person" either, although I really love the beauty of gemstones and the design/craftsmanship of jewelry)!! Whatever the necklace was (?)----i.e., that you passed over in Alberta many years ago----it surely couldn't have been anywhere-near *THIS* beautiful, Jo!!
ReplyDeleteBefore reading what you wrote here, I wasn't familiar with ammolite; so when I subsequently read assorted descriptions of it............ (e.g., "luminous"; "prismatic"; and "has qualities which rival the famous black opal for colours and fire," among others)............ well, is it POSSIBLE to go into neurogenic shock not only from, say, viewing a traumatic event, (e.g., like a horrible car accident); but also from............ seeing an overwhelmingly-*stunning* piece of jewelry (that someone you know SCORED)??!! (Haha!!)
My husband has a guy friend who's a lifelong amateur gemologist, but Women's Jewelry is still more-or-less "off my husband's radar"; however, e.v.e.n. my husband said, (i.e., when I showed him the online photograph of your new ammolite necklace), "That's a HELLUVA necklace"............
Love your blog.. oh and I really love that necklace..it's beautiful and so unique. Any idea where I can buy one? Or something similar at least.
ReplyDeleteAmmolites? interesting you learn something new everyday and you have just enlightened me. Back in my hospital days I can remember some of those anything goes days. Some where good and some not so good.
ReplyDeleteThat is one beautiful necklace!
ReplyDeleteYeah - we (nurses and hospitalist and RT) were relieving our stress one day by dancing on big sheets of bubble wrap,and yeah, we got reported.....but it was oh so much fun!!!!