is anyone out there???

Just one copy, please.

Ahhh, Staples. We've been there a lot this past week. Anna's new English teacher likes her to turn in papers that include colored pictures. We were at Staples twice today trying to print out a poem Anna had written with an accompanying picture. It was one page long. And it was taking the guy FOREVER.

While we waited, a song came on and it was one I liked. "Mom we let you sing at home because we love you---but NOT in public," she informed me. I continued singing. "Mom if you don't stop singing I'll start flinching again," she threatened. Okay, I stopped.

Flinching whenever me or Brian came near the kids was a funny trick their Aunt Molly had taught my kids when they were little. It was hilarious. Strangers would watch me approach my child who would then flinch making it look like I beat them. Very funny. I can't wait until Molly's little boy gets old enough so I can teach this trick to him.

Anyway, without my singing to distract us, we started watching the printer guy. We were the only customer and he was still not getting the page to print. Finally something came out of the printer, he looked at it, crumpled it up and threw it on the floor. "I don't think he likes your poem," I whispered loudly to my daughter.

Printer guy looked very unhappy and called for another employee to come help him. Together they spent another ten minutes looking at the computer. I had to wonder if they were perhaps proofreading her poem. Or maybe they were trying to rework it into a haiku.

Finally the poem was printed. Or more accurately a whole stack of Anna's poems were printed. Unhappy printer guy handed them to us, apologized for making us wait for so long, all the while muttering insults about the printer under his breath. Oh, and he wouldn't even let us pay for them. Which was very nice.