Shiny, Sparkly

Last month, I attended a weeklong leadership development conference at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, Germany. (Side note: Edelwiess is absolutely stunning and if you have the opportunity to get over there, I highly recommend it.) There were attendees from spouses' clubs in most of the European bases and Army posts. Needless to say, this was a very estrogen-fueled week. There were roughly 500 women there and only 4 men at the conference, and we all started to feel bad for them after a while.

USAA was one of the corporate sponsors and did a raffle for 4 pieces of jewelry from their collection ranging from $329 in value to $1,500. Needless to say, their booth was always mobbed! At dinner, the last night of the conference, they drew the winners of the raffle. My friend Hannah Won a gorgeous topaz necklace. Then they drew for a black pearl and diamond pendant that I really wanted. No luck. Shocking. Next came the gold and precious stone cross. Every girl in the room eagerly waited for her name to be called. Every girl but one. I sat back confidently knowing I wouldn't get it and took this opportunity to check Facebook. Then they called "Masha S." Go figure. The only Jew in the entire conference wins a freaking cross. The one who could care less about it.

I just sat there with a stunned look on my face like "what do I do now?" and the entire group that I was with started hysterically laughing. Tis is how I know that there really is someone up there- He has a great sense of humor.


After all of the token Jew jokes were done with and dinner ended, the USAA rep took back my cross (darn!) and said that someone would contact me about getting a slightly more Jew-friendly prize.

It came on Monday.



It is so gorgeous that I seriously cannot stop looking at it.


Thank you so much USAA for hosting the giveaways and for being such good sports about it.

A friend who is involved with the conference planning told me that this was the first year that they gave away a cross, and it will probably be the last year that they do it. They just didn't get the reaction they wanted. Murphy's Law.



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