NO PICTURES: Why Even Bother?

Sorry folks, I did not take a SINGLE picture today.  What gives?!? you demand; in response, I can only sigh and make meaningless, fumbling hand gestures of excuse and apology.  But for reals I think it is because there was nothing very photogenic going on today.  We did some spine lining, which is gluing paper and stuff to the spine, and board lining, which is gluing paper to the board, and some sanding, to make the boards a nice smooth shape, and then some leather paring, which is intense and crazy but not much to look at. But do you want to know the BIG DEAL thing that happened?  I will tell you.  First, I lay the scene:

It is past 7 pm, in a bookbinding studio.  Numbers have dwindled, only a handful of students remain.  Among them, our lovely heroine Katy stands at her work bench, skillfully paring a bevel into her leather spine piece.  Next to her, her daring friend Emilie, doing some leather paring of her own.  Along comes Don Glaister, master bookbinder, all around artistic genius, and snappy dresser. He points out that Emilie is holding her knife funny, she replies that that's the way we learned to do it in our last class.  He admits that it seems to be working fine, and moves on.  I show him my pared pieces, heart all aflutter, certain he will tell me that I have been doing it all wrong.  Instead, quote: "I'm in the hot shot corner, with the two of you who sit next to each other [other people sit kitty corner at their shared tables but Emilie and I sit side by side facing the same way], and are friends, and are both doing an excellent job."

Dear reader, did I jump up and down and scream in delight?  No, because I wanted to look cool and collected in front of Don.  But did I FREAK OUT WITH JOY inwardly and not stop giggling for the next half hour of REALLY confident-feeling leather paring?  PERHAPS DEFINITELY YES.  We spent that next half hour humming "Highway to the Danger Zone" and deciding who was Maverick and who was Goose.  Granted, we spent a lot of time alluding to Top Gun anyway because of a side project I'm playing with involving a Top Gun VHS I got from the Free Box, but still.  It could not have been more perfect.  Now when I go to my list of life goals and aspirations, I can put a little check next to "Become a bookbinding hotshot."  YES.