I spent Friday morning in Nathan and Marisa's classroom. I asked thier teacher if there was anything I could do to help so he gave me some books to take down to the office to make copies for him.

The simple instructions were to copy 4 different pages out of each book, make a master copy of just one for each page and then make 8 or 16 copies of the same pages except double side them so the students only have 2 sheets to staple together.

Sounds simple. I'd be right back.

I introduced myself to the copy machine and proceded to make some copies. Actuallly, I attempted to make some copies.

I guess you can't just stick the book under the top and press "copy" anymore. On the touch key pad you have to choose what kind of project it was...."special" was one of the options. I did not see and option for "copy". So I pushed "special" and then had to choose if I wanted the 2 to 1 option, the 1 to 2 option, the double-on-a-single page option and several more stupid options.

Hmmmm. I just want to make a copy. 16 of them. That's all.

So I bothered the secretary to come in and show me how this thing worked. She put the book in, pressed this, then that, then that again, then something different, then the number 1 (for the one master copy) then "copy". That was just the single copy. There was a whole nother secret formula for making some double sided copies. She looked at me like I understood this foriegn language, smiled, said "there you go" and left the room.

I was determined to get it right so I could show this copy machine genious that I did get it. So I started pushing this and that and something else and copy and then I swore (not loudly)and when that didn't help I did it again, and guess what...I got a sheet of paper to come out of the machine. But it was 2 pages printed on the front of one page. Not what I wanted.

Thanks to some poor woman who needed to use the machine when I was done had some pity on me...I got the thing figured out in a mere 34 minutes flat. 34 minutes for 32 copies. That has got to be some kind of record.

The thing that gets me is that I am sure that the first secretary who came in knew that I wouldn't get it. From the smile on her face when I walked out I had the feeling that there was some sort of joke going on that I wasn't aware of...or maybe that I was the butt of.

Either that or the machine had a mind of it's own. I really think these things should have a "stupid" button for us unprofessional, volunteer moms who haven't made a copy of anything since you only had two things to push when making copies....the number and "copy".