A Gentle and Quiet Spirit

ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS

I worked, for a long time, at one of those 1 hour photo labs. At that time it was called Express Photo. And boy did we have some laughs!! Not only at the weird photos we had the opportunity to look at, but at the customers, and at each other.
One day in particular stands out in my memory like it happened today. I will never forget it.
This man came to the counter, he had a very small frame, like a woman, with long blond hair and stubble on his chin. He wore tiny denim shorts and sandals and a white cotton shirt. But what caught my attention and held my gaze were his hands. Beautifully manicured long (french) nails with jewelry that most women would just die for - rings, bracelets and diamonds. His hands were so beautiful I couldn't take my eyes off them! I dont know if he was in the middle of a sex change, or if he was a drag queen or what, but he was fascinating! And of course he was all we could talk about the moment he left the shop.

Now when we make negatives and photos the negatives come out of one machine in a looooonnnngggg strip we then feed that through the printer and it turns them into phots (just a short description of what happens). The photos come out in sections and each batch has a number. We then put the photos into the envelope and cut the negatives on a really nifty little machine.

Of course when this particular man came back for his phtos I rushed to help him so I could examin him a little closer. His photos had just come out of the machine but his negatives were not cut yet. So put my great big size 7 foot in it when I said the following:

Me: "Here are your photos, uuuhhh......sir. I am just quickly going to cut your nails for you...."
(wonder what was on my mind...)

At this point I froze, he looked at me for a second before I ran howling with laughter into the office -unable to help him further because of the doubled over position I was in at that moment. One of the lady's working there with me heard the whole thing and in fact she joined me in the office laughing just as much. At me or with me - I still dont know. My co-workers teased me for weeks about it, and my husband, who worked with me then, still laughs about it from time to time.

It's those times that you just wish you could suck your words back into your mouth and erase them from existence so that no-one ever heard them or knew you had uttered them - except you.

But then, how boring would life be...