Tuesday, July 01, 2008

i'm not here, so please leave a message.

and by "i'm not here" i mean, my mind. i've lost it completely (but i'm not the only one, as you'll read from the story below). it's a short week for me at work, but that makes no difference because apparently all it means is that i have to squeeze five days of work into 3.5 and it sucks.

whatever.

anyway- i have very little to report because a) i have no mind, as i've mentioned and b) i haven't spent any time with my family since sunday when i had my parents over for dinner and that was surprisingly uneventful. even a brief trip into the city last week left me nothing of note to discuss.

i can tell you that i had an extraordinarily difficult time trying to mail a card to a friend in Canada. the below is an exchange between me and a post office worker.

me: "excuse me, can you tell me what the postage is for sending this letter (hold up letter) to Newfoundland in Canada?"

postal man: "uh. where's that?"

me: "it's an atlantic province of Canada."

postal man: "is it in nova scotia?"

me: "nope, it's its own province. like nova scotia. but not nova scotia."

postal man: "oh. well it's kind of a strange shape. what's in it?"

me: "yes, i know it is. that's why i'm asking. it's a letter."

postal man: "but what's in it?"

me: "it's just a letter. with. you know. thoughts. that kind of thing."

postal man: "why is it shaped like that?"

me: -- exasperated at this point -- "it's the stationary. can you just tell me how many of these (hold up forever stamps with bell insignia) stamps i need to use in order to successfully mail it?"

postal man: "uh. i'm not sure you can use those."

me: "why not?"

postal man: "well, maybe you can."

me: in my most polite voice - "can i speak to your supervisor?"

6 comments:

FunnyGal KAT said...

What a pain! It's not like you're trying to send a letter to another country or something! Or, wait. I guess you are. Nevermind.

I'm with you on the stuffing five days of work into three and a half. My days are blending together and it seems the only story I cover these days is the economy tanking... but from a different perspective every time (high gas prices, high food prices, more people needing financial assistance, more foreclosures, etc. but still the same ol' subject)

Anonymous said...

Your letter will never arrive. Not if the stupid man at the counter was responsible for it!!

Anonymous said...

I think it would have been less painful to just throw 2 stamps on it and mail it from your house.
OR Carrier pigion... that would have worked

Srg said...

You need to ask for Canadian postage. They'll give you some butt-ugly stamp that'll cost you 65 cents or more and that should do it!

sj said...

okay- well, we'll see if it gets there. i sent my friend his letter with two stamps (the bell) -- i told him to expect it in 2-3 weeks time.

OF COURSE i should have thought to ask you, srg... silly me.

but now i know for next time. ugly canadian stamps. got it.

Lisa said...

That's funny. I have had that type of interaction myself and it's never funny at the time, however.