Super glue and other super strange adventures

Building my soap hobby into a profitable business has consisted of a lot of experimenting.

I’ve experimented with making soap molds, decorating my soap and shipping the finished product to DigitalSoaps customers.

Starting a business from scratch has a strong learning curve that’s surprisingly enjoyable to traverse.

But when someone takes on a new endeavor with no experience, it comes as no surprise that disasters, mishaps and strange situations will strike.

First, a strange one — I received an order from someone in Russia who had no way of paying me: no checking account, no credit card account and therefore no PayPal account.

To make matters worse, she wanted the item, a pink PlayStation controller soap, shipped in time for her boyfriend’s birthday just a few weeks away.

The woman also told me there was a certain action figure her boyfriend wanted, not available in Russia. She requested I purchase it from the company Web site, ship it to my home address and then ship both products to her address.

Even though she hadn’t yet paid me, I ordered the toy for her in the name of expediency. After all, there may be something special I want from Russia, a country dear to me, in the future.

So she could pay for the product, I signed up for an Internet payment service called WebMoney. The service is somewhat complicated to use, with explanations for withdrawing the money primarily written in Russian.

Our plans to rush the payment and shipping were interrupted when her Internet provider experienced an electrical fire. A week later, she finally paid me.

I went through all of this for $4.50, but in the process I made a new friend.

Mishaps are also likely when one is starting a new business. My mishap consisted of underestimating the complete and unquestionable power of Super Glue.

(Shockingly, Super Glue is available over the counter and without a prescription).

I bought this tiny tube of mass destruction at the store so I could glue down an Xbox controller to make a mold of it. After breaking the seal of the tube, I somehow squeezed too hard and my hand became covered in supreme goo.

I didn’t react fast enough. The tube itself became bonded to my hand. It literally couldn’t be pulled off without taking my skin with it.

I wasn’t so panicked I couldn’t take a sip of coffee between fear-laden heartbeats because of the tube glued to my hand.

The label on the tube said nail polish remover could remove super glue. I found nail polish remover.

“Why isn’t it working?” I stressed, as the glue and my hand seemed to become permanent buddies. All the future seemed hopeless.

Then, the answer became clear: Acetone! I forgot the acetone. My roommate came to the rescue, and after a sauna of chemicals, my hand was freed from its sticky and inconvenient shackles.

As mentioned earlier, disasters are also inevitable in starting a business. But since a worse-than-sticky situation will someday arise, I will save that story for later.

Chrystal Doucette is the Columbia Basin Herald health and education reporter. Her tales of business chaos entertain her coworkers.