Cinderella goes to the ball!

I met Jenni (Walker) Irven back in 2000 through a friend from church, Cherry Fullam. When people ask how we met we could say the Vineyard (our church), Mary Kay (she was a customer and then a recruit), but really it was our love of karaoke. Over the past 9 years Jenni and I have been karaoke buddies and have way too much dirt on each other to ever not be friends. (I can hear her laughing at the comment now.) We've had some great adventures: Colin Hay and Journey at the Fraze, Christmas parties with random karaoke afterwards, Brighton shopping (and getting so lost), Turandot with karaoke with the principals afterwards - you get the point. Our greatest adventure so far would have to be last night, the Art Ball.

Several weeks ago I got an email from Jenni with the title "hee-hee!" and a simple question, "do you have plans for June 13?" Jenni won two tickets to the Art Ball at the Dayton Art Institute from her work, Ball Aerospace. Her husband isn't the tux-wearing type, so she asked me to go as her date. Elated, I said yes. ("YES!!!!") And the planning started.


We decided to wear previous bridesmaids dresses to the ball. Jenni wore the dress from her sister's wedding and I wore the bridesmaids dress from my wedding, Melissa's dress. (It fit perfectly, even the length, which I'm still in awe about.) Jenni got ready at my house and Jason got his Crown Victoria looking great and drove us to the Dayton Art Institute.

I decided not to bring my camera because (1) it wouldn't fit in my purse, (2) Jenni was the only other person I knew, and (3) if I really wanted a picture, I could use my cell phone. Therefore, most of these pictures are stolen from the internet or taken with my cell phone. For many more pictures of the evening, taken by professionals, see the daytondailynews.com photos. Jenni are I are in photo 95 of 111.

The party started at 7:00 pm with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. We arrived a few minutes before 7 and got our table assignment and a $1 poker chip. We walked into the main entrance and headed upstairs where we were handed champagne. We then walked into the atrium where the casino was set up. The first hors d'oeuvre we tried was rare tuna on a rice cracker with spicy tomato jam and micro cilantro. I was so caught up in the moment that I actually ate it, and it was pretty good! (Jason will now expect me to try a little more when we get sushi.)


We went into the great room and tried all the other hors d'oeuvers and loved all of them. I have to list these so you get the idea of with savory ride we gave our tongues:

• Golden crostini with sweet pea puree, goat cheese, prosciutto chip and candied lemon zest. (Loved this but the goat cheese gets stuck in your teeth.)
• Tuscan style mushrooms. (I'm not a mushroom person, but had to have a few of these.)
• Mini chicken wellingtons with pink peppercorn aioli. (Also very yummy!!)
• Smoked mozzarella phyllo cups with truffle-honey and figs. (One of our favorites!)
• Seared duck breast rolls with goat cheese, mango and basil. (Pretty good, but difficult to eat.)
  
• Watermelon, bucheron goat cheese, balsamic & fleur de sel. (Needed more flavor.)
• Apple biscotti, machego (an olive), cider almond butter and rosemary candy. (Definitely our favorite.)
  

Jenni's coworkers from Ball found us in the great room and we had a wonderful time talking about the food, the dresses, the bow ties, and Dayton politics. (I literally ran into former mayor Mike Turner.)

We also decided to try a couple of wines and some martinis. I can't remember the wines and I couldn't find a list anywhere. Jenni got a red wine and I got a white and after trying each other's, we switched. Jenni tried a martini called Drunken Butterfly, and I got a Purple Haze. Jenni's was yummy, mine was... mine was passed around so everyone could taste how much vodka and lime was in it. (It was supposed to be pomegranate, ginger and lime.) It wasn't finished.

It was a bit surreal to be standing in this art museum that was normally very quiet, surrounded by hundreds of people eating and drinking. The noise was unbelievable, but it's not as though they put up anything to absorb sound in a museum. The other thing I noticed is that everyone was using their fingers to get food and no one seemed to mind. One very elegant older couple walked by with their plates loaded with food - not just one of everything, but several of everything. I wondered if they realized there would be a full dinner later. Probably just getting their $300 worth of the experience.

Around 8:20 we got the call to dinner which was a trumpeter playing Revelry, which makes you want to run to your table. I found this very amusing. The salads waiting for us on the tables was mixed mesclun greens & hearts of romaine with red flame & green grapes, crumbled pecorino romano, snipped Italian parsley, crushed hazelnuts and white balsamic vinaigrette. Yes, as tasty as it sounds. For dinner we had garlic & pepper seasoned pan seared bistro fillet with Cabernet reduction atop a crispy semolina potato cake and sauteed shrimp, an asparagus bundle with a zucchini ribbon with a citrus ginger emulsion garnished with mustard oil. Holy stinkin' cow, what a delicious meal!

When Jenni and I sat down at the table, we had decided we didn't want to look at dead deer & pheasant the whole time (Still Life with Game in a Landscape by Jean-Baptiste Oudry), so we sat on the other side of the table to look at other oil paintings. (Unfortunately I'm not remembering the artists or the works of art we were looking at, but there was the usual bits of nudity that you normally see with eighteenth century European art.)

For dessert we went back out into the Great Hall. Our choices were:

• Mini cupcakes topped with butterflies
• Colorful layered almond cake with grand marnier ganache
• Almond macaroons in a variety of spring colors
• Triangle cut chocolate shortbread
• White and milk chocolate shells with assorted mousse
• Key lime tartlets
• Chocolate decadence bites
• Cheesecake lollipops
• Pretzel rods dipped in chocolate
• Toad Hollow Risque dessert wine

I tried a chocolate mini cupcake, the layered almond cake, key lime tartlet, cheesecake lollipop, and the dessert wine. All was incredibly yummy, however the fondant butterfly on the cupcake wasn't so great.

After desserts we headed downstairs to see the Inspirational Artwork, Shimmering Madness by artist Sandy Skoglund.

This is a large piece of 3-D work that is displayed in a corner. When you see this you'll notice a few things. The ladies and the floor are made of jelly beans. The walls behind them are butterflies that flutter every once in awhile. (You stand there waiting for the fluttering to begin just to hear the new people exclaim "oh!") The theme of the night was jelly beans and butterflies, which were part of all the decorations. The other thing you notice is that their heads are on backwards. Are they moms with eyes in the back of their heads? Is this a statement about hindsight? Or maybe the artist just likes surreal art that makes you stand in front of her art work in awe. We had a wonderful time discussing this last night - which is really the point of art.

While we were downstairs waiting for part of the group an older gentleman walked past me and stopped and told me I had a beautiful dress on. Of course I smiled and thanked him. That had to be one of the highlights of the evening!

We then went as a group to get our professional pictures taken. I teased Jenni that it was a good thing that her date was tall - I fit in well in the back row between all the wool tuxedos. After this we headed back upstairs to play our $1 chips. I love the roulette wheel, but they had a modified version of this that looked more like something you'd play at a fair. Jenni and I went for the big bucks and lost quickly. Well, we weren't there to gamble so we headed off to find the dancing.

In the lower level there was jazz music playing with a cigar and martini bar. Upstairs Velvet Crush was playing in the court yard. By this time it was 11pm and the party was just getting started. Jenni and I danced the night away. We started underneath the tent, but this area was very crowded and hot, so we found another dance floor on the other side of the the grass, under the stars with a lot more room. There was a very large fountain that blocked our view of the band, but the music was still very loud. Our favorite part was dancing to "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers (one of my favorite karaoke songs) and singing at the top of our lungs. We danced, sang, and laughed until 1:00 am when the band stopped playing.


We retrieved our shoes and purses from the base of the fountain and decided to walk out to the parking lot barefoot. Amazingly, they let us walk through the music without shoes on. Of course you wouldn't notice this with our long dresses except that we were carrying our shoes. Jason was right there in front of the doors waiting for us. We walked past the very long line of those waiting at valet for their cars and climbed in our carriage and took off for home.

What an incredible evening. Poor Jason had to listen to Jenni and I relive all our favorite moments on the car ride home. I say poor Jason because I'm sure we were half deaf and probably talking much more loudly than what was necessary in the car. However, Jason was thoroughly thanked and he enjoyed our jelly bean favors and the Esther Price chocolates we received.

This blog has taken me hours to write and post links and photos and I know I'm still forgetting somethings. I just hope that my descriptions will put pictures in your mind that will replace the ones I didn't take. Please feel free to ask any questions if I may have left something out and you're curious. :)

Security - for a price

Wednesday, May 20th, I got home from work after Jason. As I pulled up behind the house I saw Jason walking around the back yard. I got out of the car and Jason came over and said "Cyndi" and the first thought I had was that he calls me "baby doll" or "hon," or something like that, but never "Cyndi." And then he said "we've been robbed" and my next thought was "by the cable company?" (Yes, seriously.) And then I realized he was listing the items that he could tell were missing: my Macbook (laptop), his ipod Touch (it's an iphone without the phone), and everything out of the jewelry box on my dresser. He was then saying how they went through all our drawers in the bedroom, but nothing else registered. It couldn't be, this couldn't happen. We have nothing, why would they break into OUR house?

And the worst news then came out of his mouth - two of our cats were missing, the two boys. They either ran outside when the robber left or the robber let them outside to keep them out of the way. (The police said this happens a lot.) They've never been outside for more than a few minutes and then I understood why Jason had been walking around the back yard. We started walking around yelling the boys' names. "Davey! Lenny!" And then we heard meowing coming from the side of the house - Lenny! He was shook up and only wanted to get inside. Jason carried him in the front door - we weren't allowed to go through the back door - this is where they came in. They had broken the back window and then let themselves in. Suprisingly there were only two pieces of glass on the floor, the rest of the window was still in tact.

I walked around outside for a moment and then followed Jason in the front door. The spot where my laptop sat was empty, the power cord and laptop bag was gone too, along with Jason's iTouch that was plugged into my laptop, charging. My heart sank, it was true. I noticed though, that they took all the DVDs and CDs out of the bag and threw them on the recliner. Weird. And then I noticed that my camera, which I got last summer, was still sitting on the couch. I looked and all our other electronics were where we left them this morning. All our DVDs and CDs were also there. Why us?

Then I walked into the bedroom. The scene made me want to start crying. All our drawers had been opened and rifled through, and all my little jewelry boxes laid open and empty on the dresser. I looked at my nightstand and all my prescription bottles were pulled out of the top drawer and lined up on top of the stand. They must have been looking for the good drugs, but I didn't have any. My large wood jewelry box that sat on top was almost completely empty with the drawer laying on the bed, dumped out. My brain stopped functioning at this point. What was missing just wasn't registering. I didn't even notice that Jason's pillow was laying near the end of the bed, without a pillow case on it.

Slowly what was missing came back to me. My gold high school class ring, my white gold college class ring, all my ruby rings - some are antiques, my grandma's 1924 high school class ring, my ruby and diamond necklace and earrings that Jason got me for Christmas, and a diamond pendant, among many other things. They also went through the drawer that had all my Brighton and Premier jewelry and took none of this, but took everything from a plastic container that held all my sterling silver jewelry. I believe they were going after everything that was gold, or at least looked like gold. They also took Jason's college ring and his watch his parents had given him.

Jason and I went outside to talk to the neighbors and look for Davey, the other missing cat. I talked to a couple of neighbors who were shocked to hear a robbery happened next door to them. They weren't home during the day and didn't hear or see anything unusual. They also hadn't seen Davey, but would keep an eye out for him. Jason went walking a couple houses down calling out Davey's name and suddenly he could hear him crying out. He finally found him under some bushes a couple houses down. He was meowing for Jason, but wouldn't come out from under the bushes, Jason had to get him out. The boys were traumatized but home safe.

The police came and took a short description of the jewelry. A crime scene investigator came and got one really good fingerprint off of one my Brighton tins. I called the insurance company and started to give them a list of everything that was stolen. We were told a detective would get with us within a week and that an insurance agent would contact us within 24 hours. (Neither of these things happened.) I called our friends that evening and told them I couldn't see us going camping with them that weekend - Memorial Day weekend. I just couldn't leave the cats and the house alone for 4 days.

The laptop was gone, along with all my tracking of bills and our checkbook. And all those pictures I've taken since last July are all gone. Thankfully the night before I had uploaded so many pictures to our shutterfly.com site. (http://jcparsons.shutterfly.com) I also burned several CD's of pictures for friends. I would be able to put all of these back onto my new laptop. I also had just uploaded everything to my ipod, which I was told I could also load back onto my new laptop. I just feel like God told me to do these things to prepare for what to come.

The next day, Jason and a friend, Pat Caudill, worked on getting the glass in the back door replaced. They found laminated glass that would basically require a jack-hammer to get through. We also called ADT and Brinks Security and decided to go with ADT. They had a much lower monthly rate ($25/month) but the installation and equipment will cost us an arm and a leg. However, we can pass this onto the next place we live, so we're not out anything. They also could install the system the next day, before we would leave for the camping trip. I was all for this and decided the camping trip was back on.

We got the security system set up and we were reassured that our three cats wouldn't set off the motion detectors. We learned all the ins and outs of the key pad and left shortly after this on our camping trip. We really felt like we'd get quite a few false alarms the first day or two, but there were none. Then Sunday night, while we were at a drive-in, ADT called - the back door alarm had gone off. They asked if we wanted the police to go to the house, and I said yes. They asked if we would meet them there, and I said no, we're 3 hours away. They said they'd call back and let us know if the police found anything. And then the movie started.

About 20 minutes later I got another call from ADT, this time it was a different operator telling me the motion detector alarm had gone off and should they call the police. Um, haven't the police already been called? They said they'd find out and call us back. Another 45 minutes later, still no call. I decided to call ADT back and they said that when the police don't find a door or window open, they don't call me back. (Then why do they say they will???)

We're not quite sure what happened, but when we got home everything was fine. We had a friend check on the house and cats a few hours before the alarms went off. We're thinking the door wasn't shut quite all the way and when a storm came through later, the wind or a pressure change caused the door to shut completely, causing the door to close all the way. The alarm goes off for 15 minutes so I'm thinking the cats were running around and caused the motion detectors to go off. We haven't had any further false alarms since then, so we're hoping this was a one-time event.

I finally got ahold of the insurance agent the following Tuesday. Within a matter of days we had the replacement money in our account. We were able to get our new laptop and itouch about a week after the items had been stolen. I ended up with a better Macbook than what I had before, and Jason got the new itouch which now has external speakers - so he doesn't have to use headphones anymore. Nothing will replace the jewelry, but I did go out and buy a new necklace to replace the three that were stolen.

The last part of this story is missing - the follow up by the police. I went to a pawn shop to start looking for my jewelry and they asked if I talked to the police. They said that the descriptions I give them about my jewelry goes into a computer. The pawn shops hold the jewelry for 15 days before they can put the jewelry out - this gives them time to check the jewelry against the descriptions in the computer. It's now 18 days after the robbery and I still haven't given a description of the jewelry to anyone. A detective stuck his business card the week after the robbery but after a week of trying to get ahold of him, I decided to call his supervisor. Two days later I finally got a phone call from both the supervisor and the detective. Of course I didn't get the message until Friday afternoon, so I'll have to call them back on Monday.

I called the jewelry store where I got the diamond pendant, Albert Jewelers, and found out that they buy estate jewelry. I told the woman about the stolen jewelry and she said that if she can get pictures and a description of the jewelry - she can give this to a man who comes to her store to buy the estate jewelry she buys. She said that he goes all over Dayton and if it's been bought at one of those stores, he would know it. So I have some hope there. Tomorrow night's project is to scan in pictures of my jewelry and add a description. (What do you think, should I post this on my blog?)

How are we doing? Good. We were angry at first, but we know God is in control and there's that verse that says "vengence is mine saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19) We've done a lot of soul searching and although there's still hurt in my heart about what happened, it's just stuff. We're safe, our kitties are safe, and our house is now very safe.

I've read a lot of scripture about God restoring and replacing what was taken, which makes me really want this to mean that our family jewelry will be returned. (But the chance is slim.) However, in the past two weeks we've received amazing things from people - gifts out of nowhere. Tickets to a Dragon's game, a friend wants me to go to the Art Ball at the Dayton Art Institute as her date (this will be another blog), Tommy Bahama items that Jason's had his eye on, and a friend, Mary Ellen Fogg, made me a pair of earrings to replace those that were stolen. This just amazes me.

Thank you to all of our friends for your amazing offers of help, generosity, gifts, support and prayers. We've felt God's arms around us through this entire ordeal because of this.

One last thing - if you have family jewelry that is not only precious to you, but to others in your family, HIDE this jewelry. Do not put it in a jewelry box on your dresser. You might as well put a big red flashing sign that says "STEAL ME" above your dresser. If it's jewelry you never wear, put it away in a fire box (that is hidden) or a safe. Also, throw out your old prescription drugs so they don't fall into the wrong hands.

(More updates coming. And that promise of the blog about Olive Hill and Jason's cabin isn't going to happen just yet. All those photos were stolen along with the laptop.)