perfect time

I bought my last watch in Kansas, in 2011. The one before that I lost in the carry-on bins at the airport on my way to Kansas, so getting one in Kansas was kind of a necessity.

The people at the jewelry counter there, though, didn't know how to resize a watchband. So I decided I would learn to do it myself.

It took like 3 hours and an exceeding amount of frustration, but I did it.

That watch finally gave up the ghost on Sunday, after threatening for about a week. I knew that a trip to the jewelry counter was a necessity.

They didn't have the watch I wanted but I like to branch out every once in a while. I think this new one will be just fine. It is very shiny.

I had to resize it, too.

I decided to take pictures to blog about my experience, because I need more regular posts. Also, many of you have probably not had the privilege of resizing a watchband, and I wanted to show you how it's done. (Plus I downloaded a photo editing app on my Kindle and it was fun to play with it sometimes.)

As you can see, it practically looks like I'm wearing a watch even when I'm not. My tan is fine. And I want to keep it, so I needed a new watch.

Before. See how it hangs off my wrist! That will not do. (I was listening to my roommate while taking the picture, hence the turned head. Multi-tasking!)

The first step in making the watchband smaller is opening it up. It took me a while to find a tool that would do the job, as you can see from the paraphernalia around the detached watch:

Tried tweezers, a can opener, a fork, and a knife. The knife was the main success because of its thin blade.

Then you try it against your wrist and take off the topshell of the link you want to remove at. (I did this "wrong" but I don't care.) Then you open up the watch again to detach those links, and that took a little while...

It would've made sense to hold the separate piece in my other hand, but something had to press the camera button. Oh! I could've held them both in my palm! Oh well.

Then it is a simple matter of re-attaching the links together. In Kansas, this part took so long. I think it was over an hour before I tried using tweezers, and then it took me another 45 minutes or so.

You have to put this tiny little staple in exactly the right place. I ended up moving places after this for better ("better") lighting.

But a mere 7 minutes later I did it! (Well, and even less than that, because it was 7 minutes between the timestamp of the two pictures.) It was amazing.

Look how thrilled I am.

Before I could put it on, though, I had to un-flatten the links so it wouldn't come apart again. That took a little while until I figured out a way to use the tweezers as pliers. But success was mine!

My new watch will take some getting used to, but it fits perfectly and is very comfortable, so that's good. I am pleased with my accomplishment. From the time of the first picture to the last picture was only 1 hr 20 min, which is a great improvement.

Still probably shouldn't set up shop at a jewelry counter, though.

[Title text: "Kansas" because I had to. Other contenders:
"making the most of our borrowed time" (White Light)
"the tock tock tock of time" (Level Up)
"on the table it's time" (Level Up)
"the next time 'round" (In Another Life)
"oh girl you think you got time" (Grandmother Song)]