Holiday Post Office Craziness

As many of you may already know, today was to be one of the busiest days at the Post Office.

Well I was not one of those well informed of this matter. All I knew was I had to get to the post office today to mail off my cyber pal present so she would get it hopefully before Christmas was over as the theme is Christmas ornament/decorations.

After eating a late lunch, figuring that the post office is not normally that busy after the lunch hour (because most people are back at work), I headed over to the post office. There was NO PARKING anywhere. People were parked on the grass, in the fire zones, across the street, it was CRAZY. The line went outside the door to the post office.

And I thought, well I don't have hours to stand in line, so I will go after our "waiting families" meeting tonite (thanks to Rhoda and Debra for doing this each month, it is our highlight of each and every waiting month). It's okay, I can use the 24 hour automated machine to mail my package, no problem.

Okay, so there was a problem. I went to the post office, now mind you it is after the post office is closed, and there was some parking to be found (4 or so parking spots remained, so no clues about what would be going on inside). I parked and proudly strutted to the door, walked in and then saw it, the line of about 15 or so people. And the woman at the front of the line using the automated machine had no idea how it worked. Finally "kind" women in line (and no it wasn't me, I would not have the patience to deal with this kind of incompetence, I mean it really is an easy thing to use, kinda like "Mailing for Dummies") showed this woman how to purchase stamps out of the machine.

The gentleman in front of me (and note I am not being sarcastic) had about 30 packages to mail. He so kindly looked at my one lonely package and let me in front of him, what a god send he was. He also let another lady with 3 packages cut in front of him much to the pissiness of the other men in line.

So I finish standing in line, purchase my postage for my package, and what happens next. Well since the post office is closed, apparently they lock the box where you place your packages for mailing, which has a sign on it to come back tomorrow when the post office is open and the mail box will be unlocked so you can mail your package (yeah that really saves me loads of time and makes loads of sense to have a 24 hour automated machine).

And this now explains why and how people end up "going postal".

Happy holidays all!!!