Today in 1809 Edgar Allan Poe was born. Its safe to say that my regular readers know my affection for one of America’s greatest writers. If not, you may read here. Happy 197th Edgar!
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This portion of the post may contain profanity…haven’t decided if my annoyance has worn off yet!
Despite the pretty picture, stamps have been a bane to me this week. Let me first assure you that 364.9 days out of the year I love old people. Tuesday was not one of them. What is the deal with the elderly and the post office. I got in line to mail one letter. Should be simple, no? I had a half hour before my meeting started…no problem. I should have known things would be bad when there were only two tellers and the line was exceedingly long. By the time I got into the main room I could see that one teller had decided that rather than help the line move along faster she would hide behind a wooden screen and play with her computer…I truly understand why people “go postal”! What made this worse was the fact that several old people had decided that they needed to get any number of odd denominations of stamps…WTF? Just buy stamps! I had no idea there were stamps in so many different price ranges. And I didn’t want to know. I thought maybe the first lady I saw doing this was a fluke. Oh hell no…two more people after her had to buy every strange, odd numbered stamp they could get their hands on. It would not have been so bad if they did not have to stand at the counter doing complex math equations to figure out how they could save a few measley fucking pennies! If I ever get to the point that I cannot just slap a stamp on a letter, possibly donating a few extra cents to the post office in the process, please put a bullet in me. I see they upheld assisted suicide in Oregon…how about assisted murder!?!?!?
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Not too bad! As I left the post office, letter unmailed, the post I was dictating in my head had many more venemous and creative uses of profanity and not a few unkind thoughts about getting old and senile. Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry. I now return you to your day.
Celebrating someone’s 197th birthday and going berserk about old people in the one post… Good going! 😉
Hoo-hoo-hoo-hooo, ha-ha-ha, ohhhhhhhhhhmystomach! People around me are wondering why I am laughing out loud in front of the monitor. I feel your pain every time I go to the gym, I see blue hairs laxing on every machine, talking to probably a total stranger with nothing else to do except go to Walmart after their “workout”. If I was retired (and help me remember saying this) my public hours are probably going to be 10:00-3:00 M-Fri and the rest of the time will probably be catching up on lost movies or wondering why the kids don’t come over more often. Never mind I could come over and visit them.
My mother is like that. Can’t come over because of the laundry and ironing, BUT WE can load up all three kids with all their stuff and come over there. They’re like afraid of going outside. “It’s January and we don’t think the weather will hold for a visit today”. It’s 60 freakin degrees!!!
No doubt I am annoying now, but I hope I don’t develop any new annoying tendencies when I get older. I will strive to remain cool (in my own eyes 😉 ) as I age gracefully.
And Anne, good job pointing that out…the irony was lost on me! 🙂
I had a similar experience to this one at JoAnne’s Fabric a few months ago. A lady who was probably only in her 50’s. After waiting in line behind her for a LONG time because she had the exceptional talent of finding the one item in the store with no price tag and no duplicates, she insisted that the cashier shorted her 5 cents in her change. 5 CENTS!!! And she was wrong, I watched the whole exchange. I finally offered to give the lady a quarter so she would leave and I could check out…AND SHE TOOK IT!!! What is this obsession with small change???? “A penny saved is a penny earned” must be the mantra for many people.
hehe.. my mom’s in her 50s and i still don’t think of her as old.. tho, my parents do order off the Senior menu at Bob Evan’s now.. saving a couple extra bucks.. lol
over from the other Michele’s..
Very funny – thanks for making me laugh. Mike has some good “post office” stories as the closest one to his work is right across the street from an old folks home.
Off the subject – have you seen the trailer for FREEDOMLAND coming in Feb? Looks like a really good movie. Samuel L. Jackson, julianne Moore. I have really been in to movies, news stories, etc., that are creepy. I don’t want to see any gory horror movies but I am in the mood for a good thriller.
Hello Chele, thanks for the visit!
I don’t think of 50 as old either…more than anything I was surprised to see that this obsession with change ISN’T just an elder trait. Do guys do this? I’ve only seen women do this recently but it has been far from a scientific study!
I think Freedomland looks interesting, Abby, provided it doesn’t turn out to be The Forgotten, which ended terribly in my opinion.
I feel your pain I really do! I always seem to have a stupid number of old people doing equally stupid things at the post office counter when all I want to do is get my post weighed and posted…simple?!
I often go to the store with my kids. Sometimes I feel like people are peeved at me. I think I stress about it too much. I took them out during the Christmas rush and people looked at me like, “You and your kids are taking up too much space!” Old people are the very nicest to me and my kids. I tell them that I am still trying to train them and they seem to totally understand and they smile generously and talk sweetly to the kids.
One time an old lady yelled at me in the aisle at Wal-Mart. I was so hurt that I cried. I don’t like THOSE kind of old people!
My mother-in-law asked her grandma how come old people drive so slow and she said that when you get old the world seems like it’s moving really fast.
I save my obsession about change for garage sales. I like to see how far my change can stretch!
I’ll only start worrying about you Jules if I see you in the post office line asking for 60 cent stamps, commenting about all the other denominations and taking FOREVER to decide what other denominations you might want. They need to have stamp-obsessed line in the post office separate from normal mail!
And please don’t take me wrong anyone, I have nothing against the elderly, or anyone, in general…only a certain annoyance at those whose quirks get in my selfish way! And the fact that I don’t want to grow old probably factors in there somewhere.
Carl and Tom those were great stories. I laughed out loud.
Julie, I love the comment from your mother in law’s grandmother. I know that’s how I feel feel when I try to play a game on the playstation with my kids. ” everything’s moving too fast “.
Carl, I figured you being the computer guru that you are that you would be printing out your postage online. Debbie up at the shop is doing that now and she loves it. You might talk to her about it. I hated to see you bust a blood vessel standing in line behind our elderly. 🙂
What fun would that be???? Got to get blog material from somewhere!
I will NEVER go to the Post Office and I am probably considered old!! I go to Hy-Vee which is much faster. My pet peeve in line at stores,are people who wait until all their purchases are rung up and THEN decide to try and find their check books or cash -thus having to wait an extra several minutes behind these morons until they decide how to pay!! This is not an eclusive thing-these people are young and old! Hey Carl, why not buy a book of stamps and drop your letters in the nearest mailbox?
Does the Post Office rate up there with WalMart? I know that is a good shop for you-HEHE!!’
Hey Carl- you must have forgotten to change my name back when you were home for Christmas and used the computer- I realized this after I posted a comment on your site.
Mom, I did kind of wonder when I read your post that said “Carl V”; it didn’t sound like he was writing it.
And you’re not old (well you are a smidge over 50, but not old).
I have discovered the perfect solution: Go to QuikTrip for your stamps! They only sell 1st class stamps, but hey, they promise and deliver quick service as I am sure you all know!!!
Speaking as an old person, of course, I never do any of those annoying things. Hey! Love you, Jules.
I don’t care what your birth certificate may say Pat…you are definitely not old! 🙂
I’ve got to hit the post office today, hopefully my trip won’t be as traumatic as yours, otherwise I’ll miss my train.
Course I could leave the stamps, but I’m participating in an extremely scientific experiment to investigate the condition of various sweets after they have been through the post.
Best of luck Fence!
I could not tell you the last time I was in a post office – actually it was last July in Summerland, CA to mail a Trader Joe’s care package to myself. It’s such a small town that I didn’t have to deal with a line. Most of my postal needs are done over the computer now…
Welcome back Shannin…hope your L.A. trip was good. I’ll have to come over to your blog to read about it.
EAP rocks. I saw a stage production of The Bells (title?) and it was great. Or maybe it was Tell-Tale Heart.
A guy did a one-man show production of Tell-Tale Heart in my highschool when I was a senior that was just excellent!