The Iron Yuppie

I think my tact and grace (or lack thereof) is world renown and I had this little experience recently to confirm I haven't improved at all. It's a shame really, as I have been trying to improve.

For a few weeks I was pretty intensely trying to understand the diamond earing market. I studied all the online stuff, people's ears, opinions... you name it. I'd like to think I learned quite a bit. Anyhow, I've definitely relaxed a bit since then, but just today I caught what seemed like a remarkably large pair of earings on a quite young looking woman sitting next to me at a conference. Since I my tact and grace are suspect (see above), I naturally, and exceedingly bluntly, asked her the following questions... unfortunately in the following order:

1. Are those earings real? Because they're very pretty.


2. Would you mind telling me how big they are?


3. Are they about 1.5 carats total weight? Cause they look really big!

She laughed that uncomfortable laugh indicating I wasn't HR violation out of line, but I had clearly broken the social contract. Why is it ok to ask about a car or a piece of art but not something that a person is wearing? Anyhow, my exceedingly strong sense of self-denial and self-centeredness took over and I moved on to other things, but if I see her again (she works in a parallel company to mine), I know she's going to give me the crook eye. She's got to wonder what the hell is going on in my melon. If she figures it out, I hope she'll pass it along.