twenty. measley. pennies!

Yesterday, I was at the post office. Stood in line for what seemed like an hour! I had two old Russian ladies gabbing {in Russian!} behind me. Behind them was a gal on her cell phone talking {very loudly...and you know how silent those lines at the post office are} about how her baby-daddy's-mama had done something with her stimulus check from the IRS...so that's why she was at the post office {I could give your more details about text messages that were sent, and names that were called, and the hunt around town she had been on trying to track the check down...but I digress} So now she's at the post office trying to talk to a supervisor, and she has the police involved. I felt like it was a soap opera almost, and I kind of want to tune-in today to see what happens.

Also in line were just other random "Bellinghamers" that were fun to observe...one gal had a sweet neon 2-piece track suit on with black work boots, and another was wearing a big parka & ear muffs {I had to chuckle to myself...since it is the middle of May!}

Oh, and also, there were only two employees working. Awesome!

The whole time I stood in line, I thought to myself "I wonder what the man in front of me is trying to do with that sheet of two-cent stamps he is holding...I hope he isn't trying to trade them for penny stamps..." It was finally his turn, and I had to listen in...he WAS trying to trade his $0.02 stamps for $0.01 stamps!! He was telling the clerk that they were "useless" and she just looked at him with a blank stare and didn't know what to say.

For some reason this made me so angry! First of all, the post office doesn't take back or trade postage, and barter like that. Secondly, they aren't useless...put them on a letter with a $0.41 stamp, and you'll have $0.43 - they don't care about the extra penny, the letter will still get there...it just cost you an extra cent, who cares! Or, the lady suggested to save them till next year when they increase the rates again {*sigh, so rediculous!} He wasn't understanding any of it. So he kept his sheet of 2-cent stamps {total value of $0.40}, and purchased a sheet of 1-cent stamps for $0.20. What made me so angry about all of this was that he has just wasted 35 minutes standing in line, and it wasn't worth the couple of one- or two-cent stamps he was worried about {and also the money in gas to get there in the first place}. Some people, I just don't understand.

I wonder what happened with that lady & her check from the IRS...