Another Exceedingly Painful Errand!

I needed to get that big, bound document done before tomorrow so the kids and I walked down to Office Depot this afternoon. I was hoping that my favorite OD employee would not be on duty.

I felt lucky to see that though he was on duty, he was not the only one working! So I caught the eye of a competent-looking copy professional and asked her to do her thing.

It was a good start. She got right after printing the documents, as the kids played quietly on the floor with the toys they had brought.

Then it went wrong. The kids ran wild into the store, and my favorite employee was consulted about my job. NOooooooo! Unsurprisingly, he immediately put the stoppers to the progress. He told me that there were too many pages to bind into one book. I knew this was not true, since I had made the identical book for myself only a couple of weeks earlier. Then he took it upon himself to straighten the pages, even after I told him that I wanted to check through them to make sure they were in order. Guy, they're going to need straightening again after I check through them!

Gah.

Then Guy and the other employee took forever measuring the width of the papers and deciding whether they could indeed fit them into a single book. Finally, Guy gave the go-ahead for Girl to start punching the holes. As she bound it I silently rejoiced, as I tried in vain to keep Micah's ear-piercing shrieks down. My heart sunk as I saw Guy fiddling with my book.... and even further as he pulled out all the binding and started again. By now thankfully the kids were engaged in some quiet imaginative play but I was ready to pull my hair out. It was a good hour before we walked out with that one document. Amazing. I can only hope that the speed of service there improves with time and experience.

* * *

After leaving there we checked out the new gym next door. Andrew and I have been eying it up during construction and I wanted to see what it's all about. It is a circuit-concept gym... probably not what we'd be looking for. If we were serious about going to the gym, that is. ;)

Then we popped in to the new dance studio next door. I found out there are ballet and jazz classes for Eva's age. We watched a tap class that had the kids thoroughly rapt. Eva says she's interested in taking dance classes but who knows? I'll show her some examples of ballet and jazz on the computer and we'll talk about it for a while. I don't think she needs anything more on her plate during the week just yet- school is pretty draining for her.