The Popcorn Necklace

My favorite souvenir of our trip came from our first port in Alaska.

You see, there are a lot of Jewelry stores up there, and of course all of them want you to come into their store and buy something nice and expensive. Like two months of rent expensive or even more.
And a gimmick they do, is to offer 'a free gift inside!'
Of course, everyone likes free. :P lol.
So you walk into the store, say "there's a free gift in here?" and they say "yes! follow me!" and promptly lead you to the very back of the store, making you pass by all their nice and shiny gemstones in the process. Where they say "Here you go!" and hand you whatever free thing -a charm, pendant- they have decided to offer. Before you can go though they say "But wait! You can get the chain for just $10, or You can buy this nice earring set to go with it for just $15" along those lines. Or "Look at what is right beneath your hands. Do you want to try some on, they're 70% off today."
Those are the nice stores. The middle stores make you try on some jewelry first -and try their bestest to convince you to buy something- before giving you your free little gift. And then there are some stores...that offer the free gift after you buy something.

Well.
It was near the end of our day at Port. We would have to board the ship soon.
And I happened to be in this outlet store, that had a jewelry store connected to it. Meaning, there was a door leading from the outlet store to their store within the store.

I happened to glance at said door. And saw a sign that said "Free Gift Inside"
Well, why not? I thought to myself. I had time.

So I walked in. Smiled and asked "Is this where I get the free gift?"
They said "Yes, but you have to buy this necklace/earring set, or just the necklace first." (It's weird, they were the same price, I'm pretty sure.)
I was like ()_() "Oh..."
Not my type of store. I don't want to have to buy something I didn't like. But I was obedient and looked at the necklace. -I don't have pierced ears so earrings are meaningless to me.- but wasn't willing to fork the money over.

Then, the manager threw in. -halfway teasing- "Or you could go buy us some popcorn, we'll give you the charm then." He laughed. I laughed, looked around a bit and went back into the outlet store.
As I walked in, I noticed that there was definitely a strong popcorn smell in the store. And those poor people in the jewelry store next door...had probably been smelling it all day.

So for kicks and giggles, I went over to the popcorn shop inside the outlet store just to see how much said popcorn would cost.
Small $3.00
Medium $6.00
Large $9.00

O.o Wow. More expensive then movie popcorn. Crazy!
They offered three different flavors. Movie Popcorn, Kettle Corn, and...I can't remember the third.

The lady at the counter was like "Do you want to buy something? I can give you a sample?"
I was like ()_() "Uh! No! I'm just looking!" And I wandered away.
Considering.
Did I want to buy some people next door popcorn to get a charm? I didn't even know what said charm looked like....

Well...why not? I thought. It would be fun just to do something random like that.
So I went back to the counter like 30 seconds later and was like "yes, I'd like to buy some popcorn."

But...I had my reasoning thought out.
What if...the jewelry people didn't actually want the popcorn?
I only had a few minutes before I had to board the ship. I could only eat so much popcorn before having to board...as I wasn't sure they'd allow food onto the ship from the port.
So I went with the small bag of popcorn. (small being about as long as my elbow to wrist and twice as wide) That way I could eat it if the jewelry people actually didn't want it, and not waste a bunch of money on popcorn I couldn't finish myself.

I took the bag.
Walked back into the store next door.
The manager guy was on the phone.
So I made eye contact with one of the sales girls, smiled and said "Here you go." Holding the bag out to her.
Haha! The surprise on her face! Everyone's faces! "Are you serious?!!?" they exclaimed.
I nodded handing it to them. "Yep. Here."
lol. They were like kids in a candy store....or well a popcorn store I suppose.
"Now Now! Be sure to share between all of you." the manager said -having gotten off the phone. With a big smile on his face.-There were like three or four of them in the store.
They dove into it like they were starving, big smiles on their faces as well.
The manager guy was like "Give her the charm! No! Two! Give her two charms! Let her pick whichever ones she wants to have!"
-Stores of the same chain often have multiple charms you can collect along the way. But I noticed they each have all the charms....
So one of the girls took me to the back of the store (where else?) and pulled out a box and opened it to reveal different silver and gold charms. I looked through them seeing what was there, but hadn't gotten far when my mom walked in. "Hey Sar, whatcha doing?" she asked.
"Hi mom." I said.
The girl...or maybe the manager...was like "Oh! This is your mom?! She can pick out a charm too!"

O.o lol who knew that a bag of popcorn could get everyone so excited and in the giving mood? lol.
So we picked out the charms. I might have said "enjoy the popcorn!" or something like "Thanks! bye!"
And we left.
Headed back to the ship. Leaving all the people in the store to partake of the buttery goodness.
At least...I hope it was good. lol I didn't try any of it. :S

In any case Kikay, Mom, and I had just crossed the street.
When I hear "Ma'am! Ma'am!" and someone grabbed my arm. I turned, and there was one of the girls from the jewelry store. A bit breathless.
"My dad (the manager), was really impressed with what you just did. So he wanted you to have this." she said holding out....the necklace.
The one they'd wanted me to buy in the first place to get the charm.
It's a beautiful thing. Called "Glacial Ice" in Alaska. It's like the opposite of the "Northern Light's" (Mystic Topaz) stone they also sell up there. It's clear with multiple colors shining from it.

I was like ()_() :D "Oh! Thank you!" And I took the necklace offered. "Thanks so much!" ^^;;
She smiled and left. And me. Now all giddy, went onto the ship.

Hehe. ^^ Ah. Such a fun memory. ^^

And that's why that necklace is my favorite gift of the trip. Because I went out on a limb and got them popcorn when they hadn't expected me to follow through with it. :) lol.
Seriously, I would have been just as happy with only getting the charms. I mean...I'd bought the popcorn just expecting to get one in return. But they had given me three. (okay me two, mom one. I gave one of my charms to Kikay when we left the store...so I really ended up with just one myself.) I'd thought that reward enough. Then to get a necklace as well. Ah. It just makes me happy all over. Just because I decided to go with it and have a little bit of fun while in Alaska. :) lol ^^;;

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I was with my uncle Odey, and he needed to put a bunch of stuff in a box and ship it out. So I proceeded to put stuff in a box, and label it, but also have stuff wrapped on the outside of it, like a blanket and scissors...among other stuff. Only, I realized they probably wouldn't ship a box with scissors on it...and so I ended up rearranging the box -which eventually turned into a rolling suitcase, to the point...where I'd misplaced the label that had been on the outside of the box. I'm pretty sure it was on the inside. My family were getting impatient with me, as they were holding the elevator for me to get in, but I kept stopping to fix the case/box. After our trip, at home, Ali dropped by to say Hi. and I was like "Oh! I got a gift for you in Alaska for your baby shower! Here let me get it." Soo I got it and gave it to her. She was happy to get it. and we ended up hanging out on the top bunk in one of my grandma T's bedrooms. Only I noticed that there were these random brown globs on the walls that I hadn't seen before. Turns out...bees were invading the room and were working on building their hive. We were seeing the beginning process of it. More bees were flowing in and I was paranoid about  being stung. I ended up smacking something away from me. Startling a couple of bees. One flew up the sleeve of my T-shirt...and I could feel it moving around there, heading up to my neck. I wanted it out. So I stayed as still as I could, but I didn't want it getting closer to my head then possible, so I gently squished it back. Then against my skin, hoping to get it out of my sleeve before it stung me. I could feel it trying. and....

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

-S.N.D