The Glue Incident

I have a new tube of glue that has a little pad at the top that helps spread the glue over larger areas. I'd never used it before, and I couldn't get the glue to come out through the pad. I took the pad off to see if there was something blocking the glue. I was expecting a paper-type cover like you find on a bottle of honey or ketchup, but I didn't see anything. So, I squeezed. Nothing. I squeezed harder...

There was a loud pop, and suddenly there was glue everywhere. It shot straight up to the ceiling, then all over my desk.

A small overview of the workspace (pardon the mess--I create in chaos):



The glue blobbed on the card I was making, across the desk, even onto the mousepad, but I'd cleaned that up before I thought to take any pictures:



It even shot sideways to nail one of my stamps:



I eventually found the culprit on the floor on the opposite side of my worktable:



I wear glasses for a reason. Apparently, though, they're not enough because I didn't even see the little plastic cap recessed in the glue tube.

While sticky and mildly annoying to clean up, it was actually a little comic relief. You see, I was working on another sympathy card, this time for one of our students in our youth group. Her father died unexpectedly over the weekend. I was a little weepy while working on it because it was hurting me to think of how much she was hurting. Then the glue exploded, ruined the cryfest, and actually made me laugh.

I think it's some kind of metaphor for life.