Fingerprints

Today was fingerprint day. I called Metro yesterday to inquire about the hours, if I needed an appointment and how long it would take since I was bringing a two year old with me. Having received the answers, Levi and I headed down to the Metro Justice Center this morning.

Oops. I forgot you needed change for the meters. My two dimes, I found out, only added up to eight minutes of time. Not very much time when you have to get out a stroller, a child unbuckled from his car seat, the diaper bag, the lunch box, something to play with and a blanket (it was cold), oh - almost forget my purse and the paperwork. So we parked in a pay lot. Surely 30 minutes would be enough time to get this all done and get the fingerprints. At $4 for 30 minutes I sure hoped it would be. Levi and I made the trek to the building and were redirected three times between two buildings. Finally we made it to the correct area only to be told that the department I needed was closed for maintenance and wouldn't be open for another hour and a half. URGHHHH.

So I called Clark, who was on his way downtown, and told him about the wait. We met for lunch to pass the time and it was quite nice. We went to the downtown farmer's market, which had been renovated. You could get Indian, Chinese, Greek, Cajun, Meat and Three, BBQ, and Jamacian all in the food court. It was almost like a date, except Levi was there eating cheese puffs.

Finally we made it to the ID department. I think someone (the security guard) was supposed to check my bags, but no one did. So if you need to get into a secure building just have a super cute 2 year old with you and no one will ask you anything. The machine that they used to scan our fingerprints was amazing. We were done in a matter of minutes. Our fingerprints will get sent off to the FBI tomorrow! Another thing checked off our list!!

Here's a few fun fingerprint facts that I learned today:

*Fingerprints are the tiny ridges, whorls and valley patterns on the tip of each finger. They form from pressure on a baby's tiny, developing fingers in the womb.

*No two people have been found to have the same fingerprints -- they are totally unique.

*There's a one in 64 billion chance that your fingerprint will match up exactly with someone else's.

*Fingerprints are even more unique than DNA, the genetic material in each of our cells.

*Although identical twins can share the same DNA -- or at least most of it -- they can't have the same fingerprints.

* The FBI’s fingerprint database is the largest in the world because they (FBI) receives 34,000 fingerprint cards every day

* You can’t change or alter your fingerprints by cutting, burning or scraping them. Its pattern will remain the same as a new skin is developed.