Cut, Carat, Color ... and Clarity

At about seven o’clock this morning, Simon and I were treated to two flying leaps into bed from the chums who wanted to snuggle, and our two cats barely noticed aside from Madge burrowing under Johan’s arm. This is one of the many reasons we don’t have any small dogs ... another reason being the first scene of tonight’s episode.

Writing this at 35,000 feet and I’m feeling badly about flying on Earth Day, but unfortunately we can’t bicycle down to Miami – Simon and I have four book signings in Miami/Boca/Lauderdale/Tampa from Thursday to Sunday and you can get all the details here at our family website. I also want to take a minute to say THANK YOU so much to all of you who have purchased our book and also to those who have given us feedback on our Facebook page, Amazon, B&N and Borders. It means so very, very much to us, and we’ve also loved it when people at signings introduce themselves with their bravotv.com screenname!

Would you believe that this is the chums’ first trip to Florida? Yes, we’ve been around the world with them but never the sunshine state for some reason, though that will be rectified in about 90 minutes. Only problem is there’s no time for Disney on this trip, but thankfully they haven’t made the connection that Florida is where Mickey lives ... if you see us, SHHH, don’t tell them!

I was thrilled for Bethenny when she told me about her engagement – we had all hoped Jason was “the one” but until it’s official you never know. Of course one of the first things I asked after jumping up and down and screaming was whether they’d set a date yet, which was probably not the smartest first question but very typical Alex, charging ahead to the main event. We ate quiche, salad and had had fun talking about bridezillas and things that were NOT going to be part of the wedding like enormous poofy trains, big hats, carriages in Central Park or a choir (and FYI none of those were – it was beautiful!) We decided that we’d go to the Gotham magazine party together with the guys, where she planned to tell the other ladies.

What is it about the Gotham bachelor party that makes every woman want to arrive nearly naked? I think between Bethenny, Kelly and myself we had one full dress ... when confronted with NYC’s bachelors, best to be as scantily dressed as possible. I was surprised that Sonja covered up so much! That was the first night I wondered whether B might be pregnant, though at the time I told myself she was just glowing because of the engagement (and had her hair extensions in!) We arrived and no sooner had we gotten past the red carpet but Jill hit the eject button on her red fighter jet, ahem banquette, and raced to the opposite side of the room. Although I had been hearing it from both sides, I couldn’t believe that things had gotten SO bad Jill couldn’t even share a booth with her until I saw it happen. Just the sort of thing you want to experience when you’re over the moon about getting engaged – your former best friend can’t even breathe your air. First Kelly tried, then Simon tried and Jill still wouldn’t go talk to Bethenny, claiming she needed Bobby by her side. If she’d said she wanted him to hear the news and congratulate her at the same time, that would have been plausible but I don’t think that was really it. Bethenny and Jason decided to leave and said their goodbyes, then outside there was Jill again. Wow. Ring – a – ding – ding. Yes, B’s ring is a gorgeous piece of jewelry, but it’s a symbol of the engagement, which comes from the commitment made to spend the rest of their lives together which comes from the love they feel. It’s not just about cut, carat and color – isn’t there another C in there? Can’t remember. Ah yes, clarity. At this point we all could use some. Maybe Jill felt uncomfortable and didn’t know what to say, so she pounced on the ring. Maybe I’m giving her too much credit. Who knows. At any rate, the congratulation confrontation ended and so did the episode. If you think that was dramatic ... wait, oh, just wait.

Until next week, and if you’re in the Miami/Boca/FLL/Tampa area, we hope we’ll get to meet you!