Tae Kwon Do went extremely well this afternoon! I really love my uniform, too. It was a little bit big for me and at first I felt a bit like a waddling marshmallow, but the more I got used to it the more comfortable it was. Thanks to my lovely friend Chinese Sam, I knew most of the basics already, I was just a little out of practice so I got off-balance a little the first few times I tried to kick, and occasionally I’d mess up in the middle of a punch. But we sped right through it because once I practiced a few times I pretty much got all the basics. The instructor was really nice and did a great job of helping me pace myself so I didn’t hurt the no-toe. And now I’m not even sore, which is a fabulous sign. 🙂 Maybe inwardly I’m not in as bad a shape as I thought, I think I’ve just been gaining a bit of excess weight because of the whole digestive problem thing. That should be a sinch to get rid of after a few classes.
Unfortunately, my good luck ended as soon as I left the Tae Kwon Do school. After that my Mom and I went over to Target to take care of a little problem I discovered last night. Let me take you back to November 6th for a minute. It was two days after I attended the Sigur Ros concert and I had gone to Target to get my film developed from the concert. I dropped off the film, everything was great, and when I went back the two girls who worked there were all excited as soon as they saw me. They kept saying how wonderful my pictures from the concert turned out, and went on and on about how they’ve always wanted pictures like that but they never got such great pictures. That’s when they told me a somewhat funny story about how since some of the pictures turned out panoramic, I lost some pictures on the roll. I thought that was a bit odd, but I never questioned it, I was too excited about the pictures.
Last night I had to check the negatives to get the pictures back in order. Strangely enough, there were the pictures that supposedly didn’t make it to the negatives. They were either never printed, or the girls took them. I’m not sure which to believe, it’s just odd that they fed me such a story.
This evening I took the pictures back to Target to say, “Hey, what gives?” and have the seven pictures I was missing reprinted. The guy who worked at the photo center took the negatives and said to come back in twenty to forty minutes. An hour and a half later I came back to check on them. They still weren’t ready – “Half an hour more,” he said. Half an hour later I come back and my negatives are strewn all over the counter. When I pick them up they’re *coated* in fingerprints! I had seen him handling them roughly earlier, but I thought he’d know what he was doing. He came over and told me that he didn’t get them done because I “rushed him” and that the machine wouldn’t it. Bull. I just started trying to sort the negatives back into their proper envelopes and he started getting huffy with me, saying if I’d just leave them for a while he’d try again. I said, “No! You’ve probably already ruined the negatives, leaving your fingerprints all over them!” He tried to deny touching them, even though I’d just seen him pick them up. The other customers waiting there chorused behind me, “Yes you did too!” He just rolled his eyes and walked away from me. I was SO mad! He probably killed my negatives because they are literally covered in fingerprints.
I was about to cry at that point because I was just not handling confrontation well today, so I just left. I took my negatives, walked out to the car where my Mom was waiting, and asked her to come in with me. I wanted back-up in case I actually got that frog in my throat again while explaining what happened to the manager.
My Mom was pretty furious as well. We went in, talked to the manager on duty, and she was very apologetic. But, the photo center isn’t exactly run by Target, and that manager was out for the evening. She couldn’t really do much, but she gave us the name of the other manager and told us when he’d be back in tomorrow. And that if he didn’t fix it that we should call her and she’d “take care of it.”
If they don’t fix it I’m writing to Target.com. This is just awful. If they’re going to have doofuses like that working in a Target store, direct Target employees or not, they should at least know their job so they don’t kill peoples’ photos. The pictures from that concert are irreplaceable! The only thing they could do to make up for it at all would be to fly me to Seattle for Sigur Ros’ last American concert so I can at least try to reproduce them. No stupid gift certificate for a free roll of film will cut it. With the combined cost of the tickets, getting there, buying the film, and having it developed, that’s a $100 roll of film they very well could have ruined. If they can’t fix it tomorrow, oooooooooo. They’re going to see a very angry side of me that doesn’t come out too often.
Sigh. Stupid people. At least I got the dork’s name so if all else fails I’ll report him to Target headquarters. He was so rude…
I should probably sleep, huh? All this disappointment paired with lack of sleep can’t be a good thing. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts…