The new watches

Thursday evening, something happened to the Eeyore watch I'd been wearing for some 10 years. I think I must have smacked my wrist hard against something without thinking, because the second hand of the watch came loose and lodged under the minute hand - stopping the watch.

I discovered this at the AAUW meeting. I probably would have expressed more disappointment if I had been home alone, but I was in the middle of taking notes for the minutes when I realized what had happened.

Despite the fact that many people now seem to get on without wristwatches (cell phones seem to have taken their place), I still like wearing one and don't feel "right" if I don't have one on. So I knew I had to replace the watch. (And no, it wasn't fixable - I tried taking it apart to see)

I also knew I wanted another Eeyore watch. There are two reasons for this:

1. If you've read here for any length of time, you know I'm a creature of habit. Having familiar things is comforting to me, in a world I often find baffling and difficult. And while I'm not quite Raymond-Babbitt-grade creature-of-habit ("Time for Wapner..."), still, when I can have something that I like and that is familiar to me, probably eight and a half times out of ten, I will go with that, rather than with the new thing, which might be good but which also might be bad. (It's likely that this attitude was reinforced by a few instances in my life - for example, I remember suggesting "Let's try that Turkish restaurant!" when I was with a group at meetings, and I had never had Turkish food before, and they had a very small menu, and I had a terrible time finding something I could eat - and even at that, I didn't like what I ordered very much). So I tend to stick with what is familiar, because often what is familiar also carries good memories with it*

2. There's a little backstory behind the Eeyore watch. Back when I was applying for jobs, I had to buy a new watch. A Person Who Shall Remain Nameless overheard me express a desire for some kind of cartoon-character watch, and expressed an opinion that Adult Women Seeking A Professional Job Don't Wear Watches With Bugs Bunny On Them.

Because I was more impressionable then than now, and because this was a person who had more success in placing people in jobs than I obviously did, I went along with it, and bought a plain-vanilla watch. (But now, it seems ridiculous to me: would having a watch with Mickey Mouse or the Powerpuff Girls on it REALLY serve to undo the impression I made with my research presentation, interview responses, or statement of teaching philosophy? And then again: would I really want to work somewhere that was so uptight that a cartoon-character watch would DO that?)

But anyway. I got the job, moved down here. Then, one day, while teaching lab, the band on the plain-vanilla watch (it had been a VERY cheap watch; I was on a grad-student salary when I bought it) snapped, the watch fell off my wrist, hit the concrete floor, bounced twice, and stopped working.

And I realized: I needed a new watch. ("What time is it when your watch stops working? Time to buy a new watch.")

And I also realized that I had gotten a job, I had moved far from the influence of the person who criticized my desire for a silly watch - and there was nothing stopping me from getting the watch I wanted. So I went to the local Wal-Mart (pretty much the only place in town at that point for inexpensive watches - I'm sure the local jewelry had them, but they would have been expensive and also, I was running out at 7 pm when all the downtown stores were closed). And I found a watch with Eeyore on it. And I bought it.

And I wore that watch every day. I replaced the bands as they wore out with new bands. Changed the batteries when they ran down. I wore that watch through presentations at numerous national conferences, a couple of international conferences (Well, "international" in the sense that they attracted people from around the world; they were still meeting on U.S. soil). Through the (successful) tenure process, through all the years of being Associate Professor, and even through the process to become Professor.

And never once did anyone say boo to me, or take me less seriously, because I wore a watch with Eeyore on it.

And so, when the original watch broke, I wanted another, similar, one. I couldn't, of course, find the exact one (I suppose a careful search of eBay might turn that particular model up but, meh). So a search on Amazon (and a dismayed tweet about not finding what I wanted, and one of my Twitter followers obviously able to search better than I was pointing out a link to me), I found two possibilities.

One thing I like in a watch is a second hand. While I rarely need to time anything using one, still, it's a nice thing to have and provides an at-a-glance answer to "Is the watch running, or did the battery run down?"

So the first watch - the one pointed out to me - had a second hand, and I bought it. But there was a second watch that was also quite cute, wasn't very expensive, but didn't seem to have a second hand.

So I ordered them both, figuring if I was having one watch shipped halfway across the country, I might as well have two.

They came yesterday.

Here's the first watch. I forgot one of the issues I have with metal bands.



You can see it there. While I'm Not A Small Woman in many respects, my wrists are apparently on the slimmer side of average - so the watch, as it is, flops all over my wrist. I'm going to see if one of the local jewelers can remove a couple of links so the watch will stay put. (If not, that's fine - I can just wear it at times when having a watch sliding up and down my arm won't bug me. For example - not when I'm playing piano).

The second watch had a little surprise. See the pink flower detail? I thought it was just a little decal on the inside of the crystal.



When I set the time and pushed the stem in to turn the watch on, the little flowers started to MOVE - they are like a second hand! (no where on the advertising for this model, that I could see, was it mentioned that it had anything like a second hand). I squealed with girly delight when I found that out, because, as I said, I like having a watch with a second hand.

So that's the one I'm wearing, until I can get some links removed from the band of the other one.

I've never actually owned more than one watch at a time; it will be different having a choice every morning which watch I put on. Luxury!

(*I AM going to Longview for Mid-fall break again. My friend is free for lunch, even though she said she was on a strict "no buy policy." So even if I only see her for lunch - if she doesn't want to come to the yarn shop or bookstore too, lest she be tempted - at least I will get to see her and hang out for a while. And yeah, I plan to buy some yarn, even though I already have too much yarn.)