I had to mail something today at the post office. Your typical place for doing this.
Today I realized that the post office is the place to work if you are unhappy. Or, if you like to frown as you stand in a line.
When I entered building I immediately got one of those flat rate shipping boxes and pondered if it would be cheaper to find my own box and just mail it, but alas I was too lazy and opted to get screwed over if that would so happen to be. (<~~ Not sure if that is proper English but bite me if you care about whether or not it is.)
I placed my items inside the box and looked around for a pen to address the box. There were no pens. Well, except for one. But it was being used. So I stood in line being creepy and watched as a lady addressed some cards. Then as she was about to put the pen in her purse, I asked if I could use it. She was very polite and not from America and let me use it. I wanted to ask her where she was from but I thought that might be racist or something so I just filled out my labels and handed it back to her and thanked her. She smiled and said "It's so nice to not be prepared so you have something to do when you stand in line!" I laughed and said "Yeah, I'm never prepared for anything." When suddenly the first person in line shot us a glare for speaking. If looks could kill, it would only be appropriate because we were in the 2nd street post office if you know what I mean.
So we both shut up because we were both afraid of the scary man looking lady first in line.
We waited for-ever! 2 employees working behind the counter and it seemed every time they had to make a transaction they had to run to the back to get more stamps or something. So a man from the back came up and looked at the line and went into the back again. He resurfaced 5 minutes later and noticed the line hadn't moved so he called someone off their break and went into the back again. 2 minutes later he came up again and asked if anyone was doing a pick up or had something they didn't need to pay for and we all stared at him. Except one lady who stepped forward and had a long list of things and she ended her rant with "I'm going to Africa." All she needed was a box so I don't know why she had to announce that she was going to Africa. Foreign lady and I learned from the first lady in line to just glare at everyone that speaks so that's what we did.
So finally the line started moving. And then that person came off their break and it was my turn. I gave him my parcel and he went through a laundry list of questions without even looking at me because he asks the same questions day in and day out and the last question was "Is there anything fragile, liquids or anything else that could be destroyed in shipping?"
I politely responded "Only if it catches on fire."
He started laughing really hard but then the smile on his face was wiped off as he remembered 9/11 and so did I. We shared a look at each other and I said "there is nothing but paper inside this box." And he took my credit card without taking his eyes off me. And he swiped the card. Then handed it back to me. And then I left.
Stupid Bin Laden. Nothing can be funny anymore.
