The Old Ball and Chain: Part 1

In January of 2005, John and I decided to go on vacation. For years we had been talking about moving out of state. We thought that visiting cities up and down the east coast would be a great way to decide which area we wanted to live in. First on the list was Baltimore (My husband got this notion in his head that Maryland would be a great place to live. Since we had never actually stepped foot in Maryland, I made it a priority to go there first, with the hope that he would stop talking about it.)

A few days before our departure, we decided to throw caution to the wind and get married (because we are spontaneous like that). I really liked the idea of running off to get married. It made the whole thing seem special and intimate and romantic. We looked into getting a marriage license and contacted a minister who agreed to meet us at the location of our choosing. All we needed were rings. John and I are not fancy people. We don't place much value on things like jewelry. However, I still wanted a ring. We decided to stop in a little shop in our hometown. I had passed by this jewelry store a million times in my life, but I had never actually been inside.

It was a small store. A couple of jewelry cases lined the walls. After browsing for a few minutes, the owner of the shop came up to introduce himself. And finally, it all made sense. The store was called Jewel King Jewelers and the man who was introducing himself looked suspiciously like THE KING OF ROCK N' ROLL. You know, Elvis. Thank you, thank you very much. I started looking around the room, and noticed that the walls were decorated with pictures of Elvis. There was a life size cut-out of Elvis. And there was a picture of our jeweler dressed up as Elvis. That is right - our salesman was an Elvis impersonator. AWESOME! I decided right then and there that I was buying my wedding ring from The King. How many times in your life do you get to buy jewelry from an Elvis impersonator? We picked out our rings that night. And I am happy to report that The King was nothing but courteous and helpful. My only regret is that we didn't get a picture with Elvis. He was pretty awesome.

Armed with love and cheap wedding rings from Elvis, we headed off to Baltimore...