Damn you DNA!

I was so excited to get to spend last night hanging out with Second. Fourteen is a TOUGH age for a girl, but she and I have found some really good, connective moments lately. Times when it has just been the two of us, and I am so relieved to know that she is in there, still, although mostly lost amongst the teenage dramz of hair flipping and eye rolling and general parental avoidance that marks her current tribe.

She bought a new camera last week with the Gran money that arrived a few weeks ago. She really impressed me with how well she researched her choices, and narrowed down what features she wanted. The thing is -- it worked for two days, and then it went to some sort of techno heaven where I could not reclaim it, even after carefully following the directions in the manual. Of course, I had been the last one to use it, thoughtlessly (ahem) borrowing it to photograph her last field hockey game. So there was a good hour or so of "MOM! YOU BROKE IT!" followed by me frantically and also methodically trying to fix it.

I made the radical suggestion to take it back to the store and let the people who actually know about cameras try to fix it. The technician at the store was one of those guys who I totally get. He loves a puzzle, that one. From first sight I could TELL he was not going to walk away until he had cracked it. An hour later he had been on the phone to Zeus himself up there on Mount Olympus, and even Zeus couldn't fix it. Well, what do you know? It wasn't me at all. Even in the seemingly perfect world of cameras, a lemon craps out now and then. Did I get an apology? Nope, just denial. "What, mom! I never SAID you broke it!" Alzheimer's runs in my family, but it's not here YET peeps....So the technician asked us to come back today when the manager is there, and they are going to give us a new one, hopefully, since the camera *is* only two days old.

And Second went into the funk I know so well, but have never actually seen her do before. She is either getting a new camera, or they are going to send this one off to get fixed. It's going to get better. It is! But she stewed the whole way home. "I wanted the ONE THING I have wanted for ages to be perfect. But noooooo - I can't have ONE THING go right!" Oh, how the heart weeps to see the reflection embodied. All that whining aloud I have done in front of them seriously came back to bite me in the ass. I said all the things to her that I wish someone would say to me when I am being thoroughly martyred. And it did naught. Oh, Second. I do apologize.

And thus the Anne Shirley chorus erupted in my head: from now on I shall relentlessly seek silver linings and poop rainbows and laugh at tribulation, and quote the classic poets and be a GOOD MODEL for my children! Sure. That'll happen.

Right after Zeus calls to personally apologize for making a camera that was less than perfect, and provides us with a year's supply of free prints for our troubles.

I'll keep you posted.