There is probably no place
more dreaded of public institutions over the holiday season then the
federal post office. And you will notice I said federal post office
I'm not sure about how the private postal type carriers function but
I don't believe there is the same amount of frustration as the postal
service of the United States government. I say this because like the
driver's license bureau are Social Security office these are places
where the public has to go regardless of their status in life.
Luckily places like the drivers license bureau or Social Security you
go just the minimum amount of times during a lifetime whereas the
post office it seems at least once a year if not more but Christmas
time for sure.
For instance today I made
the trip to the post office on Redwood Road at about 2100 S. really
not a bad trip all things considered since the bus picks me up right
outside my apartment complex and it's a straight line all the way
into the post office. My friend who lives in the Netherlands, Elske.
She is the person I met through the Internet. She is the artist
anyway I have been visiting with her via text messaging and I asked
her for her address so I can send her a Christmas card. Of course the
Christmas card is easy the real challenges how much does it cost to
send a card across the ocean to the Netherlands? I mean it's bad
enough trying to send a regular letter (as I do a couple times a
month) and to figure out whether or not the post they just changed
and how much postage is just for domestic parcels. But across the
water that's a whole different trip and then a card with a couple
bookmarks on the inside so the cards kind of poochi. I had to Santa
Claus stamps left and then I put up Janis Joplin and they stamp of
the astronaut that got blown up the lady astronaut and another stamp
that I can't remember right now but altogether came to three bucks
worth of stamps.
I knew it was going to be
a wait after all it is the post office and it is Christmas. And there
was a line and I got it. Like I said if you got a mail something you
got a go to the post office. The day was surprisingly warm for
December. There are actually overweight women there with tank tops
and their coats tied around their waists, your business guys in suits
each carrying four or five boxes and always some weird guy with
literally shopping carts full of boxes he is trying to send. The
postal workers are doing the best they can against the onslaught of
humanity. Some are wearing Santa beards are just weird beards of
Christmas. Others have the Santa hats on and are all working as fast
as they can in the bureaucratic sort of way. I am trying not to run
in the people at the same time trying to keep the line moving as much
as the line ever moves. We inch along. Finally someone comes out from
the back someone who's definitely management but not management
dressed. To turn Levi's and a sweatshirt like most of the other
staff. She asks the general group if we have a certain grouping of
needs that she can take care of but no one responds. Their eyes are
glazed over and they just wait for the next person to cycle through.
The lady spies me and comes over and asks what I need. I produce my
letter and ask your I just wanted to know if I have enough postage.
She brightens and says I can help you with that. She takes the letter
actually ways it in our hands like she knows what she's doing, like
she's weighing a fish. She looks at me to ask the stamps all six of
them and says “oh hell yes you got enough” to not inform me that
I could have done letter on half the stamps that's okay as long as
the letter gets there to the Netherlands so far far away.
I turn around and leave
thinking to myself maybe I'll go to the liquor store that is such a
fun place to be during the Christmas season… All the lines there
happy full of Yuletide cheer our soon to be
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