I won a laminating machine off of ebay because when it came down to it, I was smarter and willing to risk more than the other bidders. I told some people at a party about how now I can laminate anything and one jokester said that he bet I couldn’t laminate car keys. Everyone laughed at that and I felt my stomach sink. I wanted to explain that when I had said “anything,” I meant that I could laminate documents or identification cards, but I didn’t think of how to say it until it was too late. He had humiliated me. I stayed at the party for hours and hours, hoping to find an opportunity to casually steer the conversation back towards home laminating techniques, but my big chance never came. I cried on the way home. Sobbed really. I even did that thing where the crying interferes with my attempts to express myself verbally and so it sounds like I’m shivering: “I…I…I…H-h-h-HATE…h-h-h-HIM!”
In my dreams, I made it to the finals of a laminating competition. And guess what? I got third! Out of 200 people!
