Read With Caution

If you have a weak stomach or a sensitive heart, read this entry with caution (or not at all) as it may cause extreme depression and/or a feeling of utter devastation.

So, as you may already know, Wade and I went to Washington DC, Boston and New York and just got back at the beginning of this week. For those of you who read my last entry, you got a brief overview of what we saw on our trip.

What I failed to mention was the HORRIFIC event that occurred halfway through our trip (we were still in Boston and on our way to New York the next day).

Upon entering a Museum Restroom, I thought to myself, “I should take my camera out in case I want to take pictures of any sculptures or artwork.” Stupidly, I took the camera our WHILE I WAS STILL IN THE STALL and my camera FELL INTO THE TOILET.

OOOOOOOOHHHMYYYYYYYYYYGAAAAAAAAAAAAAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was there for seriously, ONE AND A HALF SECONDS before I blatantly disregarded my fear of public toilets and PLUNGED my hand into the toilet (no pee in it, thank goodness) to rescue my drowning Canon. I pulled it out of its watery grave and frantically tried to figure out what to do. I took out the batteries and the memory card and spent 20 minutes trying to towel dry it with sad little brown towels. The towels seemed to be the same material as BROWN PAPER BAGS and hardly absorbed anything, but in my frantic state, I kept on trying.

I finally gave up and left the bathroom to walk through the exhibits. Water kept coming out of hidden cavities of the camera and onto the floors of the museum. I held the camera in my arms with all its flaps, compartments, and covers open, reminiscent of a fleshy wound, to air it out. (Three different people who worked at the museum warned me, saying, “You can’t take pictures in here” … and every time someone said that to me, I almost started crying, thinking, “I know I can’t… my camera’s dead!”)

I ended up buying a crappy digital camera (crappy compared to my beautiful specimen) to use for the rest of the trip (I told Wade that there was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to go to New York without a FUCKING camera!) It turned out to take great pictures, but that doesn’t at all mollify my sadness.

Back at the hotel I put the batteries back into the camera to see if it would magically work. It made a very sad whirring sound (like taking its last dying breath) but didn’t turn on. I tried again and again throughout our trip (even after buying a replacement) in hopes of a miracle. It did turn on in New York, but doesn’t do much else.

So now I am in mourning. I took it to Best Buy the day we got back and they have it in their CAMERA ICU for two weeks. In the meantime, I must wait and see what the fate of my luscious camera is and be patient and not freak out or cry every time I think of my loss…

Here’s My Camera

Here’s Its Replacement (temporary, I hope!)

And in response to Renee’s question of how we took these pictures of ourselves, my camera has a FABULOUS feature that allows this kind of precision.

You can flip the screen to face the front of the camera so you can see yourself when you take your own picture. It is divine.

Well, it WAS divine.