Ah this time of year. I love it. Yet hate it at the same time. Why you ask? LINES!!!!! Everywhere I go there are lines miles long! Pre Brynlee I wasn't so bugged by a long line. I would just wait patiently. Long lines gave me time to think, ponder if you will. Now with Brynlee a long line means death.
For those of you who have not waited in a long line with a 3 year old I do not recommend it. At least not with my 3 year old. She will stay with me patiently for about 1 minute. And then she starts touching stuff, people, whatever. So, I usually try to plan accordingly. If I'm going to have to go somewhere where I know I will have to wait a while I do my best to either go while she is in school or work something out with someone who can watch her ( ie Megan, my life savor!).
However I had a package to mail, and the clock was ticking. Christmas is coming and I just wanted to get it into the mail to be sure it gets there on time.
So I braved the post office on a Friday with Brynlee in tow. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot I knew it was a bad idea. Was there anyone in the town of Queen Creek that was not at the post office at that time? I don't think so. We walked into a HUGE line. But there was a smaller one to use the self serve kiosk. I'm all about the self serve kiosks these days. So I waited in that line. While it was shorter than the other one, it was by no means short. We finally got to the kiosk only to find out that my package was in fact too large to go down the chute, and that I would have to wait in the other line. So not happening. So after waiting for no reason at all, making me late for an appointment I had we left. There might have been some pregnant woman rage involved. I might have cried ( yes I cried, what can I tell you I'm hormonal). I might have thrown my box down in my fit of rage. Not to worry, there was nothing fragile in there. Even though I was seeing red I knew I didn't want to actually damage the contents of my box!
I decided I would go the post office first thing the next day ( Saturday) without Brynlee. According to the website the post office opened at 9am on Saturdays. At 8:55 my box and I entered the doors of the post office. Luckily they have like a vestibule thing here, so we didn't have to wait outside. Not planning on being at the post office for very long, I was basically in my PJ's with no make up or bra on for that matter. Imagine my surprise when I saw 8 other people lined up. That's Ok! 8 I can handle. I took my place at the end of the line. At 9:05 I began to wonder what was going on. The actual post office was still not open. I looked at the door and saw that it said the Saturday hours were 10:30am to 1:30pm. 10:30!!???? I mentioned this to the lady behind me who told me that she had called the post office and the recording told her it opened at 9:00am. Word spread throughout the now lengthy line that it appeared they did not actually open until 10:30 despite the info on the website and phone. We could hear workers milling around in the back. One of my fellow patrons rang the door bell repeatedly until a postal worker opened it, advising us that they did not in fact open for another hour and 15 min. Mob mentality struck. Talk about some angry postal patrons!
Ugh. What was I to do? Let the post office get the best of me, again? I'd already waited 20 min at this point. However there were no chairs, no bathrooms and no water fountain ( all necessities to a pregnant lady). The idea of going home again with my package and having to make a 3rd attempt at mailing it another time was not one I wanted to entertain. I decided to wait it out.
About 30 min later I was re thinking my decision. My back was killing me and I was doing the pee dance. As the mob grew angrier and angrier ( more people had shown up by this time) someone else decided to ring the doorbell repeatedly. When another postal worker answered, I threw myself on her mercy. Bathroom! Please let me use a bathroom! Not only did she let me use the bathroom, she actually opened up a window early to help us! And the people that were in front of me in line actually let me go first. It was a Christmas post office miracle.
I came home that day 1 package lighter. But more importantly I gained a new respect for postal workers and man kind.
Waiting for James to arrive!
9 years ago
1 comment:
That totally sounds like something that would happen at our post office here in Tooele. Their service is horrible. It's like them and the dmv workers hang out together or something. I RARELY mail stuff or have to ever go in there thank goodness. There was a time there was a huge line and a lady closed her line and was just walking around doing something else leaving only one lady open for the rest of the huge line. So dumb! Then another time I saw the mailman pull up and he was doing something for a couple min then moved on. Found a note saying I wasn't home for a delivery so I had to go pick it up to get it. He lied! He never even came up to the door (best part... he's a high councilman in our stake!). So I headed to the post office with Charlotte in tow and it ended up being a certified letter that was for someone else not at our address. He tagged it wrong. Nice. Thank you for wasting my time.
Post a Comment