Trials of Fake Post Offices

I'm sure you've seen those post office branches. They're post offices, but not post offices, and they're commonly found in places like greeting card shops. (I won't name names, but the chain rhymes with "ballpark".) Sometimes they're convenient, and I mail a lot of stuff, so I like to think I know the ropes about mailing.

Usually I'll go to the regular post office, but it's tucked away in a little corner of town surrounded by one-way streets and poor traffic control. One day last summer, I went to the fake post office at the local "ballpark" store intending to mail a book. There was a man staffing the counter who I'm pretty sure was the forgotten eighth dwarf, Surly, who didn't make it into Snow White's story. He snapped at a little old lady for asking how much it would be to mail a calendar. When it was my turn, I presented my package. Surly weighed it and quoted the price. I tried to pay using exact change, and he wouldn't accept my pennies. He was quite rude about it, so I decided to take my business elsewhere. I've never mailed at "ballpark" since.

Today, I needed to mail another book. I had to be on campus early for a meeting today, so I figured I would just mail it from the university post office. (This is at a private university.) I went down into the cavernous recesses of the student union basement and ventured into the underground parcel lair. I'm sure the woman who staffed the counter must be Surly's sister. I presented my package and she weighed it. She quoted me a price, something like $2.53 and said cash only. I pulled out three $1 coins to pay. She looked at me with a scowl and said "I don't accept those." I politely informed her that it was valid U.S. currency, and she scowled and said that she couldn't exchange them (whatever that was supposed to mean). She said I could go next door to the quick mart to get change. I was annoyed, so I politely asked for my package back. I'll mail it from the real post office on my way home.

It's pretty sad that the people at the government run post office actually provide better customer service than people at privately run post offices. What's so hard about accepting U.S. money to mail packages from the U.S., to the U.S. to be delivered by the U.S. postal service?

Un-Shopping

I really dislike running errands. It's just a big pain that takes away from other things I would rather be doing, like reading, sleeping, working, etc. Shopping is my least favorite errand, because not only is it annoying, it's also expensive.

Last week, my to-do list finally got so long I couldn't put it off any longer. I got started on what I like to call un-shopping. I had some old clothes that needed to go to the thrift store. I had some books that I needed to sell to the used bookstore. I had a television antenna that I needed to return to Radio Shack. So, I started out with a bunch of stuff and no money, and I ended my trip with no stuff and a bunch of money. Much better than shopping.

Happy New Year!

I've been a vacationing slacker. (I haven't been slacking in my vacationing duties; I've been on vacation and slacking at everything else.) As such, I completely neglected to make posts about Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or any other holidays celebrated this time of year. I'm going to at least recognize what my cousin refers to as "the arbitrarily designated end and start of the Earth's revolution". So, there you have it, Happy New Year.

I make resolutions each year, and I break them by the end of January. Here's this year's list:

1) I resolve to stop procrastinating...tomorrow.
2) I resolve to tone down the sarcasm. (Yeah, right...)