To buy or not to buy, that is the question.

Sooo, what seemed like a morning adventure…POSSIBLY involving even lunch, went just a tad longer than expected.

Jeanne and I left the flat around 9:30 this morning to meet Dawn who was going to escort us to a bridal salon that she remembered as having lots of options PLUS a really helpful staff.  Now customer service is a new concept in Ukraine, so when someone treats you well…well, you remember her!

We met Dawn outside the metro near 10:00 and the three of us climbed into a marshrutka that would take us the several blocks we needed to go.  Dawn couldn’t quite remember whether we actually NEEDED the mini-bus ride, or whether in winter (when she had last been at the shop) it just FELT like a long walk, but we were happy to sit for a few minutes and allow Dawn to scope out the neighborhood and let us know when to disembark.  She recognized the building, we hustled out,  and headed for the door.  Around mounds of dirt.  Next to open ditches where exposed pipes were being melded together.

When we approached the door of the building, she noticed a new security box.  She was certain that the store was in the first apartment on the right, so she started just pressing buttons…hoping that ONE of the combinations would ring the first flat.  Eventually she realized that with just a few phone calls she could probably track down the name and phone number of the store.  Once we learned the name, we called Dasha who had quick access on the internet to get a phone number.  She called the store herself and said that some customers were locked out, just outside their building.  Apparently, someone came looking, but didn’t see us.

Turns out that the store had moved to the next door to the right.  Of course, we couldn’t just walk to that spot.  Remember the ditches and dirt mounds?  So back out to the street, dodging large machinery, over the makeshift wooden bridge over one ditch, and to the next door.  The building with the neon sign advertising a bridal shop.  Hmmm.  We might have noticed that sooner had we been able to actually walk to that side of the building without such a detour.

BUT, the good news was that we were in the correct place.  We were shown several notebooks that had pictures of the dresses that were in stock, and we marked the pages that looked promising.  The saleswoman was so knowledgeable of her inventory that as Jeanne tried on one dress and gave her pros and cons, the gal was able to eliminate some that we had THOUGHT might be nice and added a few others.  The biggest surprise to us was how pretty the vintage lace dresses looked on Jeanne.

She humored me by trying on some “over the top” dresses — absolutely gorgeous.  Very traditional.  But a little too much for here.  Jim called at one point to see if he could join me on my hospital visit, but we were still trying on dresses.  He was only one metro stop away, so he decided to come take a look for himself.

That was a whole comedy of errors.  And I am convinced that if you don’t know exactly where you’re going, WALK, don’t ride!  Buses and trams take you too far out of the way too quickly if you miss just one landmark.  He called to say what was out the bus window, and the salesgal quickly said that he had gone too far.  He headed back, and somehow missed seeing Dawn on the street.  (Turns out that the bus that was recommended took a sharp turn before our street).  We couldn’t figure out how he was missing the huge construction site!

Finally he was close enough that I could walk out to the corner and see him.  He looked happy to find the place, but frustrated that either we had given him poor directions or he had not followed them exactly right.  (No comments on that, please.)

While we were waiting for Jim, Jeanne tried on some extra dresses just for fun.  And, one of them was incredibly beautiful on her.  We would NEVER have picked it from the picture.  Even after we knew what it looked like on her, when we saw the picture we just shook our heads.   Wouldn’t you just know that THAT was the dress that was probably one of the most expensive in the shop.  Not ostentatious.  Not one that you would just say WOW! at first glance.  But one that grew on us more and more as she stood there in it.  A gorgeous dress.

We came home with only one slight mishap…another blog when I can get a picture…and hit the internet looking for the dress to compare prices.  Yep, it’s expensive anywhere.

The best price we could find was…on eBay!  Go figure!  Less than half the price of what we saw in the store!

(Small problem. Though I used to do a lot of buying and selling back in the day, I forgot my password.  This came to my attention last year when I was trying to buy DVDs as Christmas presents.  Well, I tried to sign on with what I am quite sure was my password…and it denied access.  I went to the special spot for those of us with major memory lapses, answered the appropriate questions, and they assured me that they would send my password to the email that I had on record with them. Who knows what email that might have been?!  Still no clue what my password is.  I either have to sign up AGAIN…and again have no history for anyone to trust me!…or I have to get a friend to just buy the darn thing for me!  I DO remember how to reimburse!)

Jim wants to see it on her one more time before we lay down the bucks.  Can’t blame him.