Anne Frank was wrong

"In spite of everything, I still think people are good at heart, " so says Anne in her world-reknown diary. And I have always tried to see the positive, the potential for good in people....it is really hard to get rid of me once I am in your life as I have difficulty letting go, even when I know the deep, dark, rotting core...there is STILL something good and lovable about everyone... or so I thought.

I took my camera to the fair last week and I took photos of the paper-making I was demonstrating - to share with YOU guys....As I wandered around the midway during a break, I apparently set my camera down and didn't pick it up again, cuz 3 minutes later, I realized it was gone...idiot. So I ran back to where I had been sitting, but naturally it was gone. I went to the lost and found in the main office, but NATURALLY it had not been turned in - I was at the county fair for god's sake, and you know what kinds of people go THERE...the kinds that eat FRIED dough and deep fried Moon Pies (OK, and yes, people just like me who don't eat that crap, but I was not feeling that generous at the time). I filled out a lost item report, and just accepted that the camera was gone. THEN the next morning, I got a call from the woman I had made the report with, Sherry...someone had found it! Sherry turned the camera on and verified the photos, and I was all excited. Since I was demo'ing again this week, I asked if they could keep it 'til I got out on Thursday...SURE she says. People are AWESOME, or so I proclaimed in my Face book status....

So, I showed up at the fair yesterday, all happy and smiley and renewed about humanity in general...and went to the office...where they had no FUCKING idea where the camera was! Yes, Sherry remembered talking to me, remembered having the camera and seeing the photos, remembered putting it in the bin with the other lost and found objects, but couldn't explain where it was. She checked with the other people who worked in the office, but no one even remembered seeing it, let alone giving it to anyone else.

I was relatively calm, given the situation and my normal tendencies to overreact and blow things out of proportion. My seemingly logical question was, IF no one can get in the office other than her and her co -workers, and IF no one can get behind her desk but her and her co-workers, and IF my camera WAS there and NOW it isn't, wouldn't it be safe for me to ASSUME that one of those three people either had stolen my camera or knew who did? I think that is a reasonable and logical assumption. At the VERY least, I think Sherry needs to accept responsibility for my STOLEN property! Am I wrong to think the fair should replace my camera! Lost, that is MY fault and I am an idiot and I accept that responsibilty. Found, turned in, safe, kept in a locked office and still stolen?? that is some one ELSE's responsibility. Sherry could have told me, when she called, that she couldn't accept the responsibility of keeping it til Thursday, and I would have driven the 40 miles in rush hour traffic to get it! But no, she said, fine, we will keep it for you. A Pima County sherrif was in the room, the whole time and I thought, well, he could help, but he just shrugged his shoulders and said, there wasn't anything I could do. All he did was be the authority presence I needed not to choke the living SHIT out of Sherry.

I insisted on filing a stolen property report, and I got me a fancy report number, but what else can I do! I don't even want the damn camera... just give me the memory card and the photos....I am the kind of person if I find a wallet or a piece of property, I turn it in, and HOPE whoever I turn it into will contact the owner....How can someone STEAL a camera? What if there were baby pictures or wedding pictures or something like that on? Don't people have a conscience? Shut up, I know, my expectations are unrealistic...but this is my blog and I can be as hopeful and positive about how humanity OUGHT to fucking be as I want...right now, humanity sucks and we all deserve ALL the pain and suffering we get.

Fuck

Here are some pictures from LAST year's event, when I had a camera, and when there were some actual kids who were interested in what I was doing. This year the hall was dead quiet and the only people who came by were the other people demo'ing in the hall and the people who were hiding from the heat outside.

You know how I was saying I am gonna start saying No and all that?? Well, I am not doing the Fair anymore...there, there is something else off my list...

And, here is what I do with the paper when it is all done ($3 each, 2 for $5 and I have hundreds for all occasions - free shipping for orders over $10)