If You Live in Arlington . . .

. . . this blog entry will have at least some meaning. But if you don't, it's just going to be just a bunch of meaningless drivel that may quite possibly put you to sleep. Do not read this while using heavy machinery or attempting to operate a motor vehicle is all I'm sayin', okay?

Darcy's 5th grade banquet is fast approaching and the call has already been put out for baby pictures, 1st grade pictures, pictures from school activities this year . . . we need pictures, and we need 'em now! So last week I spent way more time than I want to think about searching in vain for a photo of Darcy prior to the age of twelve months. What kind of mother am I who can't lay hands on her daughter's baby pictures? I'm the kind of mother who lives with sleep deprivation, thank you very much. After culling through hundreds of photo files on CDs, my laptop, my external hard drive and even a cast-off photo box, it finally HIT ME just like that--we didn't have a digital camera when Darcy was a baby!

I can't even visualize the camera in my mind, but we had one of those Kodak Advantix cameras that used the Advanced Photo System (APS) film that was returned to the consumer in a little cartridge (as opposed to negatives) and you stored all your cute little cartridges in a video-shaped box. Not a bad system, truth be told. As soon as I had my breakthrough I pulled all my video-shaped boxes out from their storage place in my closet and VOILA! Baby Darcy!!

The next step was finding a lab that still traffics in APS film developing. I finally located one that was open on Sundays and made plans to drop off my cartridges after the Op Camp barbecue lunch and auction. The problem was that the auction ran until almost 2:00 and I had to be back at the church building at 4:30 for LTC practice/coaching, and I wasn't moving too quickly because I'd wrenched my back earlier that morning. All I really wanted to do was drop the film off, get back home and rest for perhaps an hour or so before having to get back out again.

This is where all the non-Arlington folks will probably want to check out. I ran home (by this time it was 2:15), grabbed my cartridges and headed out toward Randol Mill. Wolf Camera @ S. Cooper and Arbrook is the lab I had made contact with on Saturday night to confirm they could develop my film, but I reasoned that since I have coupons for free prints at Arlington Camera on N. Cooper and Randol Mill, and Arlington Camera is a high-end camera shop, I could probably get the job done there and save a few pennies while I was at it. It wasn't until I pulled into the parking lot at Arlington Camera that I remembered calling their shop on Saturday night and hearing a recorded message saying, yep, they're closed on Sunday. So much for saving a few pennies.

I decided that since I was going to have to go all the way to the other side of town, I would drive back home and drop Sawyer off. But I was so distracted at the thought of having to drive to the other side of town that I actually turned onto Cooper instead of going straight on Randol Mill. It wasn't until I passed Sanford that I was like, "Hey, wasn't that . . ." and sure enough, the next thing I saw was Division. I clued in to what I'd done and whipped my van onto Division and then had to backtrack to get back home. Grrr.

Once home, I dropped Sawyer off and told Randy where I was going. So off I headed again, back to Sanford, and just as I'd almost reached Fielder and was going to turn right, Randy called and said there was a Wolf Camera on our side of town--N. Collins, to be exact. "Turn left at Fielder," he said, "and go to Lamar, hang a right, go to N. Collins and make a left and the camera store should be somewhere on the left-hand side." O-kay.

Construction around N. Collins is horrendous but I made the trek, waiting through countless red lights and maneuvering through all kinds of obstacles. I had JUST turned on to N. Collins when my cell rang. "Don't hate me," I heard Randy's voice say. "The store on N. Collins is closed." Perfect. "You know what? Do this. Just take Cooper all the way and enjoy listening to the radio." Well, what else could I do? The irony is that I actually had to traverse the same stretch of Cooper that I had inadvertently taken about a half-hour before . . . if only I'd stayed put!

LONG story short, I finally got to Wolf Camera and dropped off my cartridges, only to be told that they were "really busy" and their one-hour service would be more like twenty-one-hour service; yeah, I can't pick up my prints until noon today. Grrrr again. And then I hopped back in my van and came home, where I marinated for a grand total of about ten minutes before I had to be back at the building.

Welcome to my world.