"Ghetto Mart"

I'm a sucker for a good deal. Let me tell you how much I will go through sometimes for such a great deal. When Eliza was born, I received a coupon from Olan Mills for a free portrait session which included a free 8x10, 2 5x7's, 4 wallets, and 6 photo cards. It was all completely free! The only catch was that I had to use it before she was 3 months old so I decided to take some pictures of her in her blessing dress.
I scheduled an appointment online for this past Saturday at 4 pm. Marty and Brooklyn had attended a convert baptism that day at 3 and were running late on their way home. I was home getting Eliza fed and ready to go, but I wanted to be there early so I could change her into her dress and find the place. I hate being late, but it seems like we are always running late! I once had pictures taken at Target and we were late because of traffic and the lady who was scheduled after us was already there and was throwing a fit that she would have to wait for us to be finished so I was having reoccurring nightmares of that incident.
I was uptight on the drive down 5600 West, which is where I thought I scheduled an appointment. Olan Mills' are inside most Kmart's and I know the old Kmart down on 5600 W & 3500 S is now a Sears Grand, but they had merged companies so I assumed it was inside there. Well, I was wrong! I walked that whole store before I found an employee to ask who said, "what? I've never heard of Olan Mills". I explained the Internet said it was inside this store and she just said sorry. I left that store so frustrated! Not only was I late, but I was at the wrong store and now had to find out where I was supposed to be!
Marty tried calling the Olan Mills number, but no one answered so we just assumed it was the Kmart down on 5400 S. & Bangerter. I was ready to just go home and forget the whole thing, but Marty was determined. It was now about 4:30 and here we walk into "Ghetto Mart". Has anyone been inside this store? Holy Cow! It needs some work! It was seriously scary! Ceiling tiles are either a) gone or b) completely yellow! I see the sign for Olan Mills so we walk back there and it brought new meaning to "whole in the wall". The whole studio was the size of my bathroom, I kid you not! I had no idea where they were going to fit the camera let along take a picture of my child.
Luckily, the photographer was bored out of her mind and didn't have another appointment until 5:30 (no wonder!) so she was willing to take us back. But not before she called us "chicken" for not taking family pictures. I wanted to yell "look, we're here for the free pictures, that's all!". I still needed to change Eliza and there was no where to put her down so I was trying to juggle her while I changed her. Luckily I didn't drop her, but my boiling point was getting closer and closer.
We put Eliza down for the pictures and the photographer (aka: Nicotine lady as we so affectionaly call her) was trying to get her dress to lay down away from her face so she picks Eliza up and kisses her! My first thought "you did not just kiss my baby!". It's one thing if I know you, but not some random lady inside Ghetto Mart. From there, I had to just let Marty take over and I needed to step away.
We got a few good pictures, but over all it was easy to pick the one pose option I had to get my free pictures and then get out of there. We put Eliza's blessing day on the photo cards and the poor lady had to ask us at least 3 times how to spell February.
Oh, the things we do for free! I think next time I'll just pay and save myself from such encounters.