Going Postal

A slightly better place holder....until I'm trapped in an airport somewhere again anyhow :)

This afternoon I gained a whole new appreciation for the term "going postal"...having experienced up close and personal what the US Postal Service actually LOOKS like to your everyday average Joe.

I am, like ever so many other people (who rarely admit it, just to make ME look bad, I'm sure ;) Packing Challenged.  I just can't DO it.  Really.  Ever. I seriously need some strapping young thing to just say "here, let me do that for you "  :) I can however, almost certainly be relied upon to over pack in a Texas style way .

Whoops she did it again. At least I didn't disappoint myself !

When one has to sit and/or wrestle a suitcase into submission originally, adding MORE items doesn't work very well.  The math's off entirely.....

So. 

SHIP it BACK I think ?

.......adding another bit of luggage is NOT an option, considering the altogether total impossibility of wrangling TWO cases plus 'puter plus Me all the way back to BC via the previously mentioned  plane/train/bus/ferry scenario.

I felt quite ill just thinking about it.

Postal Service outlet here we come............what we walked IN to however was nothing any  more cheerful than a funeral parlor. Less so, if that's actually possible. I can't honestly recall ever experiencing any energy quite like THAT before.  ABJECT MISERY.  Complete and total.  Huge line up of entirely morose people with a mere two equally morose clerks moving the masses along at a snails pace.  It was like some B Grade Horror film.....

Not ONE single smile, sniffle or word from any single anything.  No muzak, no rustling of feet, NO sound whatsoever .  Creepy, morose, SILENCE. 

Had you heard a pin drop it would have been  groaning. 

Apparently this is the way it just IS and , for many Americans, going to the Post Office is akin to a root canal and/or putting a much beloved pet down.  They clearly do NOT want to BE there and the atmosphere resonates with their unhappiness, which they are forced to linger in longer due to staffing cutbacks.  Being the clerks at the receiving end of THAT all day ??  I cannot even begin to imagine it but they too are the pictures of abject misery and "going postal" would be entirely reasonable and probably quite appealing under such appalling working conditions.   

I have, never, seen so many actual frowns in one place before. 

Seeing as it physically pains both myself and my current Hostess With The Mostest to actually physically frown (frankly I don't think either of us possesses the required muscles) we just can't DO this particular zone but we are certainly forced to do something as the parcel MUST be posted or all will be entirely lost and children in Canada will be forced to go shoeless LOL

So......we just BE...... ourselves :~D

Initially we got treated much like Aliens from another planet (perhaps we are) .  Eyes were averted, down usually and several frowns actually deepened with the sound of our usual banter, accompanied with the usual  fits of laughter. Customs forms ARE funny really...what IS the ACTUAL dollar value of my favourite tatty t-shirt? my well hiked sneakers?  flip flops??......

What's THIS they think ??? 

Two loud and clearly happy middle aged women, a strange sounding one wearing a t-shirt with a Ginourmous, Rainbowed Paw/Peace Sign and  a local with a melodic giggle and presence to match... oh MY...whatever are they DOing??

.....Fifteen minutes and much laughter (yes I made a lot of Canuck jokes...it works, as does a room full of people listening to me try to explain WHY I'm shipping used clothing etc back to Canada  :) later......Parcel successfully posted (Space In Case only to be replaced by several pairs of soccer cleats and exercise trainers LOL).....we left an entirely different space.  Clerks not only smiling again , but LAUGHING......people talking, most of them also smiling................WOW.

These little cupcakes turned THOSE frowns entirely upside down :~D

We didn't do or be anything other than what and whom we ARE. 
We walked into a very oppressive and unpleasant situation and stayed OUR course.... turned it all around, for the better, for a number of people, the least of which being those poor postal clerks , whom we left laughing and most likely telling stories that may well make us Urban Legends :)  Again.  Ha !

It cost us nothing, we laughed, we played........we resisted the common element of misery and PREVAILED.

My package got posted and my kids will get their shoes too!! *LOL*

Win Win.

Live, Love, Laugh.......................

:)

Random Act of Silly....Just Because ;)