I have the fingerprints of a 70 year old!

Yesterday I had to go by the police station to get fingerprinted for something at work. No, I didn't commit any crimes! I needed them for a background check by the state for the license I took the class in Charlotte to get. Anyway...in true Mark form, this could not be done easily. I was trying to rush the process as soon as possible so I could get it out of the way. I took the test I needed Saturday and, after passing, got my fingerprint card. My goal was to get the prints done that day and overnight the forms to the state. I head down to the police department to get printed and kinda assumed they just had the stuff up at the desk and about anyone could do it...oh silly me! Apparently there's only one person there that does fingerprints, meaning they can only be done M-F, 9-5.

I went back Monday to get them done and, naturally the woman is at lunch when I get there! Geez! I have a few other errands to run downtown so take care of those and come back. When I get back on my 3rd time, the lady is apparently there (finally) so I'm thinking, oh good, someone's gonna bust out an ink pad and take care of this. Not so much. First the lady at the front desk asks me "Have you filled out your card yet?" No...so I fill out the card. Then when I'm done I look at her and she says "Well have you paid and all yet?" Paid?! I have to pay them for this kinda thing? Is paying my taxes not enough to earn some ink on my fingers?? So I ask her how much and she tells me $15!! I mean I realize in the grand scheme of things that's not really all that much, but still, I didn't know I had to pay at all! She makes me walk over to another window to pay (behind which were four women leaned back in chairs talking, clearly getting nothing done), then I have to go back to her and show my receipt before she'll call the fingerprint lady (gotta love the inefficiency of bureaucracy!) She calls the lady and tells me to have a seat.

10 mins. later I hear someone from around the corner scream "Fingerprints? Come follow me!" I get up and walk in the general direction of where the voice came from and finally found the lady. We went up stairs and she began the fingerprinting. To be fair, she was a very nice lady with a lot more personality than I expected to find working there. She took the fingerprints and was disappointed with how they came out on a few of my fingers. She re-inked them really good and tried again on another piece of paper, but still they weren't very clear. She just concluded that I'm one of those people who doesn't have very good fingerprints. She said "You know, a lot of people think it has something to do with age, but really, some people just don't fingerprint well. Guess you're one of them!" haha

So I'm a freak...oh well, no news there! At least if I do want to commit a crime I stand an above average chance of not getting caught...well, as long as I don't leave DNA traces either (not that that's on file anywhere). Also, I guess it would help if I were selective with which fingers I used, since some are worse than others. Ehh, I guess it'd just be easier to don some Isotoners OJ style.