A very good friend of mine gave me a very personal gift for
my birthday. She made a poster board out of newspaper
clippings with my picture on it announcing an exclusive
interview which she followed up with an imagined exclusive
interview. I was very touched and overwhelmed and decided to
frame the `front page' as is and hang it in my room.
I took it to the photo store near my house. I have a very
good relationship with the people there. I explained how
precious this was to me and how I wanted to have it framed. I
left the store and returned a week later to pick up the
picture. The framer had cut off some of the writing with the
frame and it didn't look very professional. I told the
storekeeper that I wouldn't pay for it like this. She
apologized profusely and sent it back.
I came back the following week and this time, the framing was
fine, but in the process, the framer had bent over one of the
clippings within the frame. It looked ridiculous. I was
beside myself with frustration but afraid to send it back to
that same framer. The very nice lady assured me that she
empathized and that she was mortified over such shoddy work,
herself. They had never had problems with this particular
framer, she added.
Okay, I thought, I'll give them one more chance and one more
week. I didn't want her to feel bad and I had no guarantees
that somebody else would do it any better. The next week I
was back. It looked fine. Finally. She gave me a discount and
I went home to hang it. There was only one problem: the cord
on the back had been attached from the bottom instead of the
top and all I could do was hang it upside down.
I went back the next day. We were both laughing. This had
gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. She immediately
called up the framer and ordered him to come to the store.
She was determined that he fix the picture then and there and
not take it back to his workshop. She wasn't taking any
more chances. Just to be on the safe side, he even
left the first cord and added another one.
Triumphantly, I returned home with my prized possession. I
went to put it on the nail in the wall, which had been
hanging around, waiting for the picture. The nail was so
excited to see its long lost friend that it jumped for joy
and went off the wall.
I sighed, gave up and hung it on a doorknob of my closet.
So much for vanity...
