They May Try... But They Will NOT Spoil My Good Mood

The world was trying to rain on my parade today.  It failed.

There were no #4 Priority Mail boxes in the post office this morning when I stopped by to drop off the results of last night's elfing.  A small disappointment, but mitigated by the fact that they've installed another drop box for packages in the lobby.  I shlepped my big plastic bag over to the big silver handle and had a grand time dropping things down into the depths.  I love depositing the mail before the postal workers start their day.  I don't know why it makes me happy to think that they will be greeted by my boxes of love when they arrive at work, but it does.

Little Cuter was beset by fools at work today.  Her holiday cheer has been sucked out ..... worse than if I were a Twilight character.  Normally, I'd be worried that her perfect life had a little dent and I'd be obsessing over the best way to cheer her up.  But not today (to quote Kurt Russel/Herb Brooks in Miracle).  Today I demanded that she banish such thoughts from her realm.  I directed her to the people who love her and make her smile and soon she was thinking about her evening filled with joy and light and snow and love and a much needed cocktail!!  My rallying cry? Holiday Cheer Rules!

The USPS print-your-postage-at-hme-and-save-20% website does not recognize the address of The captain and Tenille, even though I've been sending them mail there for decades.  I slept in that house on my honeymoon.  I know it exists.  There's a chat feature and a phone number each of which was supposed to solve the problem for me and neither of which came close to doing so but i didn't really care, because I could go and visit my friendly neighborhood postal outlet, the one in the RV in the parking lot of the mall around the corner.  

The lady usually smiles at me, but, in keeping with the tenor of the day, she was quite abrupt as she rejected my taping over the Flat Rate words on the flat rate box and using it to send my brownies Priority Mail.  She insisted that that box had been created for Flat Rate postage and flat rate postage was what it was going to carry, despite my best efforts with fancy masking tape.  Nor did she have any #4 Priority Mail boxes which I could use to accomplish my task.   This is the kind of scenario which would typically send me over the edge and tumbling down the precipice of snotty-verging-on-hostile.  But not today.  Today I shrugged and said "Goodbye, then," and, okay, so I may have had just a touch of attitude in my voice but I was trying, denizens, I really was.  I got back in The Schnozz and rolled down the windows and relished the fact that it was warm enough to do just that.  There's rain and snow over many of the people I love; Arizona set me right back to smiling.

I drove to the newest sandwich/bakery in the area for their first day of business only to find, after waiting in line, that they were just doing bread and scones.  At 2pm, I was ready for protein so, once again, I left a destination unfulfilled.  The bank shares a parking lot with a new Beyond Bread, though, so I was able to take care of two problems with one trip.  Not exactly what I wanted for lunch, but I told myself that serendipity is a good thing.  I have to find my holiday music cd's; my cheery spirit sometimes needs just a little bit of help.


The other postal outlet I frequent told me the same thing about the taped over boxes.  With the same amount of attitude.  Is there something about the masking tape that feels like defilement?  Have I offended the honor of postal employees everywhere by repurposing their material for my own use?  I have no idea.  But I will learn from my experience and I promise that I will never ever do that again.  Right now I am going to cover them over with brown paper wrapping - not that easy to do since I take reusable bags to the grocery store - and head out to a third postal location.  Perhaps they will have those #4 boxes just waiting for me to take them home and fill them with love.


Holiday Cheer Rules!