Definitely No Good At Kinko's... And After.

I decided to add upon my previous message of not being any good at kinkos (or not kinko-ing well).

Earlier I spoke of a phone call in which they said they could not mount my poster on black foam board, I was fine with this and carried on my day merrily.  This is the rising action of my story... keep reading for more!

I decided on the Kinkos in Columbia because my girlfriend lives there and it just so happened to be our 5 year anniversary.  So my aforementioned yet unnamed girlfriend and I  finished dinner and arrived at Kinkos around 6:30 (and if you read my last post, you will know that they promised to finish my project by 6. So I should be fine.)  After around fifteen minutes listening to the broken English of the Kinkos employee arguing with the broken English of an angry employee, another employee decided that she should help me.

I let her know that I submitted my project the night before and she goes back and finds it, my poster, magazine, postcard, all of it.  End of story right? Wrong.  She decided that somehow in my specific instructions of not wanting my project mounted on white board that she would do exactly that.  Here is the conversation.

Me - "Oh great! Thank you for my... wait, why is this mounted on white poster board?"

Her - "The instructions say that you wanted it mounted"

"Well, I said I can't have it mounted on white board"

"The instructions are right here and they say you asked for this"

She pulls out a piece of paper that they typed up.  Indeed someone had written that it was to be mounted, but it was not my orders

"I can't turn that in mounted on white board, is there any way that you can print me up another one?"

"I can print up another one but it will cost you extra" (She says this in a way that lets me know that my request is completely detrimental to the important work that she is doing)

"Whatever. That's fine."

"Okay, have a seat it'll be right out."

At this point I take a seat at a table they have set up to the side with my girlfriend, and watch as the aforementioned angry customer argues over the shade of red on his papers.  All the while the customers two young children run rampant in the store.

Around ten minutes later I see that my project is sitting freshly printed out.  Sitting is not the accurate term I guess. Laying?  Either way, it is not getting any closer to being in my possession.  I look over, the lady is sitting at her computer clicking away.  The sitting and clicking and laying all continue for another twenty minutes or so before she notices my anxious pacing back and forth throughout the store and decides it is time to let me have my project, I had been punished enough.

I receive my project, drop my girlfriend off around 8 and head home.  The end yet again?  Possibly, but mounting projects is an adventure in and of itself.



So I arrive home around 8:30 to the post-pregame apocalypse that is my apartment.  Roommates are nowhere to be seen, but our house is strewn with whiskey bottles, empty glasses, etc.

I mount my projects in the kitchen because the granite counter tops are much easier to cut large stuff on than my measly desk.  I cut out my magazine ad, my postcards and I am working on the black mounting board when I notice that my magazine and postcards are sitting in some liquid left behind on the counters.  On a normal occasion, I print up multiple copies of each piece, but today of course I only had the one copy of each.

I make a mad dash for the soaking wet pieces of work, and upon grabbing them begin waving around frantically trying to dry them out.

Luckily, card stock is extremely resilient and after a few minutes of waving, the pieces settle back to almost their original shape.

Yet another adventure in the world of Graphic Design.  Stay tuned for the next installment.