These past three days have helped me to understand the phrase going postal, perhaps in a different sense than intended but the English language has a long history of breaking the mold of old dogs learning new tricks. In any case my string of bad luck came to a head today and got the better of me for a couple hours. I know when I need to step back and take stock of things, and this evening was one of those times. Luckily knowing me my whole life, Mom understood that and did what she could to keep me from actually going postal, and thankfully she did a good job. With a clearer head now, at 3:01 in the morning, the past couple days seem a bit comical actually, but things usually look better in hindsight.
Day 1 of the ordeal was Tuesday. Mom ordered a new tv to replace our broken Sony. Mom ordered it either Sunday night or Monday morning and suffice it to say, we weren't expecting it for a couple days. Of course one hopes that a package will be early so I was listening out for UPS come Tuesday. So imagine my surprise when I step out the door at 3:20pm and see a UPS missed delivery notice on the floor in front of the door. Why was I so surprised? Only because I had been sitting by the door since 12:30 and the slip said they came at 1pm. So I was very confused as to why I hadn't heard it. I had a theory though, I figured the man had only rung the bell, which is broken, and hadn't bothered to knock to double check. Wouldn't it make sense to knock to make sure?
Day 2 of the ordeal would naturally be Wednesday. Expecting the package to come around 1ish judging by the day before I was hoping that I would be able to get out of the house after it came to meet a few inquisitive Prep 9 kids who were interested in finding out about going to school at Lawrenceville for high school. It does make sense to judge a shipping company based on previous performance right? Wouldn't you assume that they have some system that meant that they would reach my building sometime around 1 everyday, give or take an hour? Well of course it turns out that that makes no sense at all because the tv didn't show up until around 6. Having the foresight to ask security to have UPS physically knock on the door did pay off but my whole day was shot, I could have gone out and met those Prep kids, luckily that plan had called for two people to go and the second person was able to make it. Adding insult to injury, the UPS guy delivered the package in such a way that I didn't realize the entire tape job was busted. The tape is clearly labeled with a warning reading something to the effect "of the tape is damaged upon delivery, please review all items with the delivery agent." As I had let the "agent" go because I couldn't see the busted tape upon delivery, Mom and myself had to go into lock down the building mode because we weren't about to be saddled with any potential loss of money over this. So I rang up security to have them stop the UPS man and send him right back upstairs, and Mom not leaving things to chance grabbed her book and set up camp in the lobby to act as look out lest UPS man try and make a mistake. Luckily he was an honorable guy and came back up rather apologetically and looked the contents over with me. Happy ending to the UPS debacle, but I still have a package coming through the Post Office itself.
Day 3 of the ordeal is Thursday. I ordered a new phone last Friday and admittedly wasn't expecting it until this Friday but be the overzealous shipment tracker that I am I saw that it was processed through my branch post office early this morning and was, and I quote, "Out for Delivery or Available at PO Box, August 12, 2010, 9:42am, BROOKLYN, NY 11205". Well we don't have a PO Box so I was right to assume that I would be getting my new phone that afternoon when the postman came to fill all the mailboxes in my 23 story building...right? Well you'd be wrong again. I went downstairs to "get" my package to be told by the postman that packages come on a truck and that the normal truck driver was out today and would make his runs tomorrow. Well in the hope that I could pick up my package myself I rang up the branch office and this woman informed me that a sub had come in and taken out the truck and that he would be swinging by later. In the hopes of catching this sub I went downstairs about every half hour just to check. If the Post Office tries to deliver a package they leave a slip in the box saying that the package is in the mailroom, and every time I checked no such slip was present. Well it was going on 5:30pm and I was starting to get antsy. At that time my sister's father had come to pick her up so I took her downstairs to hand her over and stayed downstairs with them about 15 minutes which means I came upstairs around 5:45. Ten minutes later I get an email, yes I signed up for email alerts, saying, and I quote, "Notice Left, August 12, 2010, 5:42pm, BROOKLYN, NY 11205". In plain english that means that some invisible postman came and "tried" to deliver my package and being unable to do so left an imaginary slip in the box stating that fact, ALL while I was downstairs in the lobby "watching" this happen. In laymen terms, THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE LIED!!! I was livid! I tore downstairs and inquired with security if they had seen the delivery truck come through today, of course they said no. My anger had to be evident on my face because everyone I passed on my way back upstairs kept asking me "what's wrong Robbie" or some facsimile therein...and I was unable to put my anger to words.
As 'Waiting on the World to Change" plays through my headphones, I think it sums up how I feel at this moment. The world needs snail mail and there is really nothing I can do about its deficiencies except wait for it to change itself. As it stands now I'll just keep on waiting (chorus: waiting) for my phone to show up...I might just try and retrieve it myself tomorrow morning. We'll see how that goes.
I write this as the world famous voice of John Mayer soothes my anger away (well the likes of Raul Midon, Beirut, Keane and others have been helping) as I sit on my familiar futon perch about to head to bed.
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