Do it myself

 One of my favorite stories from childhood was "The Little Red Hen." You might remember it (or not; I remember making a joke about it during game-time in Youth Group some ten or so years ago and none of the kids recognized it). Anyway: Little Red Hen worked quite hard, growing grain and harvesting grain and threshing grain and milling grain, and every step of the way she asked other animals for help, and they were all too busy or too tired or whatever, and so, her refrain was " 'Then I will do it myself,' said the Little Red Hen."

Until the very end, when she had baked bread and taken it from the oven. And ALL her animal "friends" showed up wanting to "help" her eat the bread. 

And she explains to them (at least in the version of the story I had in one of my books as a kid) that when she worked in the garden, she Did It Herself. And when she prepared the grain she Did It Herself. And when she baked the bread she Did It Herself. Because no one was willing to help. But now that it was the "fun" part....well, there they all were. And one last time, she says: "Then I will do it myself" and eats the bread *all herself*

And yes, I know: it's ungracious and ungenerous and all that, but it appealed on a very deep level to my childhood sense of justice. And really, after asking everyone for help and being told no, why should she be expected to share the bread she labored for all on her own? it is implied that the other animals are NOT starving or anything. 

But anyway. After I got out of class today I contemplated driving out to the UPS shop to see if they did, in fact, do copying, but realized even if they DID, it wouldn't get done in time for the meeting tomorrow.

So I went down and asked the department secretary - the Keeper of the Copier - if I might use it, and indicated it was less than 100 pages total. And she said "sure, go ahead." And I said "I wish I had some cardstock for the covers but I don't have time to go out to wal-mart for it" and she said "if slightly heavier than copier paper colored paper is good enough, we have lots that we're not using" and yes, that will be fine in an exigency.

So. I did it myself, said the little red hen:

Oh, they're not perfect - the stapling makes them harder to open (I can't staple them in proper booklet way, we don't have a long enough stapler) and they're a little wonky folded. But they're done. And if someone has a problem with them? They can take the task over next year and good luck to them at finding a place to print these.

Yes I am salty about this but I've worked so hard so long for so little recognition that I feel I deserve to be a bit salty