Trials and Tribulations

If I have learned one thing in the last 24 hours it has been that consistently hitting the space bar with one's left thumb is very difficult. I suppose if you're left handed it might be natural for you to hit the space bar with your left thumb, but as I am not left handed, this is a very rude awakening. Why have I switched to hitting the space bar with my left thumb, you may ask? Let me recount the story.

Yesterday I had a photography project due at 6:00. As I was not finished after we got back from our field trip, I headed to the dark room to finish up printing some pictures. I had 6 to make in a little over 2 hours. For those of you not familiar with the time frame of printing black and white pictures in a darkroom, this was going to be tight. Needless to say, I was somewhat confident that I could finish and have my project in our class cubby by 6.
My printing took longer than I expected, but I was almost done at 5:40 with only 1 print left to make. I picked the photo I wanted to use, lined it up, put it in the enlarger, adjusted a few things, focused the image and opened the drawer at my station to grab a piece of paper.
*A quick note on the drawers: There are 2 drawers at each station, the top one being a regular drawer to keep extra negatives/crap in. The bottom drawer, however, is light tight (kind of like this) so that one can keep paper in it outside of the containers you buy it in at the photo store. There is a metal top that, unlike the above link, hinges and snaps down as opposed to sliding which protects all of the contents of the drawer from dreaded light and, consequently, ruined paper.
Ok, so I grabbed a piece of paper, and began to close the drawer, but forgot to close the metal lid of the drawer before doing so. This caused said lid to slam down. On the base of my nail on my right thumb.

Yeah, ow.

I commenced freaking out silently as there were other people in the darkroom with me. Then, with tears in my eyes making my last print. But before doing this I glanced at my thumb, which in the orangy light looked like it had something black on it. I momentarily wondered why there would be grease on the edges of the drawers until realizing I was bleeding. Rushing to the sink, I rinsed off my hand, wrapped my thumb in paper towel and proceeded to make one of the worst prints EVER. Normally, I would care, but since after almost 10 minutes my thumb was still bleeding, I probably wouldn't have cared if the picture had been completely black. I just wanted to leave. I turned my project in at 6:01:22 only to forget part of it and return a few minutes later to add more things to my folder. Luckily, our TA hadn't picked up the projects yet, so I probably won't fail. Whoopdi freaking doo.


**Update**

Here's what a normal thumb looks like:



Here's my thumb:

Hey sports fans!

It is Superbowl Sunday.

I consider myself an occasional football fan. Usually, if my team isn't playing, I struggle to care about who is winning/losing/bleeding/going to jail on any given Sunday. Now, (I know that what I'm about to type is stereotypical and quite sexist, but whatever) I think this, in part, has to do with the fact that I am not a guy, but even so, I feel a little guilty about it. Granted not as guilty as I would feel if I didn't vote or shower or go to class as those things actually matter, but still on some level it feels like an injustice. A very small gnat sized injustice buzzing in my ear. Only on Sundays.

This being said, today is not one of those Sundays because I really, really want the Giants to win.

I don't particularly like the Giants. In fact, I'm still a little bitter that they beat the Vikings in 2000 41-0 to rob them of their own shot at the Superbowl. I don't really care about their record or the fact that they beat the Packers, and I'm not automatically a fan of Eli because I like Peyton. No, I just really want to see Michael Strahan make Tom Brady cry.

I realize that many people want to see the Patriots win because it would be historic, and amazing and the completion of a perfect season, but where's the fun in that? I think it would be just as historic and even more amazing if a team that everyone was saying would lose and lose big, with a relatively inexperienced quarterback and a defensive end with a HUGE gap in his teeth went out and completely blew away the "best team" in the league in the biggest game of the year.

So with that, I'm going to go put my game face on, root for the underdog, and prepare for the most amazing 28-24 upset turned grudge-match ever to be on national television.

GO GIANTS!!