Oops

(The above posted photos were taken after the incident that follows...)
My camera and I had a bad day together today. In fact, it was so bad that I almost felt...betrayed. Once, not long ago, I had a problem where the shutter release button would not depress all the way. It confused me because I didn't know what functions I had or had not set, or what mistakes I had made, or whatever user errors could have surmounted my ability to get the thing to shoot a photo. But the error went away, and I happily snapped pictures but this morning, the error returned. With a vengeance. I do not know how to explain how badly I freaked out internally. It wasn't like regular everyday problems that cause me to easily freak out - no, not the same thing - it was a many hundreds of dollars camera failing to comply with my wishes to operate it. So, I did what any dumb new Nikon D40 owner would do, and I huffed into Best Buy all mad. With my receipt waving madly in one hand and the "broken" camera in the other, I explained to the mean lady at the Customer Service desk that I was on Day 16 of ownership without a Best Buy extra warranty (14-day return policy - go figure) and that I'm on vacation effective tomorrow and that the only reason I coughed up such a huge fraction of my salary for that thing was for this vacation. And now my 18-55mm lens would not autofocus, but instead would whirr as if in pain, unable to take photographs?? Come on. I know it's New York City, but give a girl with no ability to operate a dSLR a break, for crying out loud.*I don't want to recap everything else I did following the unsuccessful Best Buy adventure to find a lens to function for the week in the place of the seemingly dysfunctional 18-55mm, how many calls I placed, how many frantic internet searches I did. I even got to a point where Craig offered to throw an expensive alternative lens on a credit card to satiate me (he is the sweetest person in America!) I swear, I pawed through the manual and through my literature seeking for an easy answer. And even the internet didn't help me, no matter what I searched.*But this story has a happy ending. Craig is a little bit run down with a head cold (I know, before vacation, and that sucks) so while he napped, I decided to give the thing one last college try. I attached the kit lens back to the camera (kit lens being the operative phrase here, seeing as I've read/heard nothing but bad stuff about "kit" lenses since the seeming breakdown) and I checked the menu feature, which told me something strange in focus mode about "closest subject" versus the "single subject" that I had selected before. I switched back to single subject and WHAT DO YOU KNOW...the lens remembered all about autofocus! Hurray! KB's inexperience to the rescue!! Oh, I just can only hope I've figured it all out. I guess I haven't used it in a few days - does it default back to that "closest subject" mode?? Hmph, if so, I will figure out a way to reconfigure that. Whatever it is about that "closest subject" function that caused my lens to whir in utter pain, as if I were demanding too much, as if I, the amateur dSLR photographer were punching the poor camera in the gut repeatedly without reprieve, I will squash that somehow. My poor D40. It took a mental beating today!