Never Again in My Life!

I will never go to Postal Connections in Albany again. It was awful, mainly for my own goof ups. I don't mail many packages. Even though I"ve been in Albany almost two years, I still don't know really where anything is, not like I knew Corvallis. So I stick pretty close to home, if not out finding cats. There really are tons of chain stores and malls in Albany, but nothing much else, so if you're not a shopping type, and I don't have the money nor the desire to shop, this place isn't for you.

I call my life here--existence, if you know what I mean, like I could have the same relationship to this town if I was just passing through, staying one night in a motel because my car broke down on I5. It's hard to explain what I mean. It's not like this is home. I'm existing here for now.

I couldn't get away from Postal Connections fast enough today, after stopping in there to mail a couple of packages. I finally was able to get out of my iced over driveway. I avoid the Albany Post Office like the plague. In good times, not at Christmas, you can easily wait an hour or two in line. I couldn't even imagine what it might be like at Christmas.

So I figured "these are lightweight items that shouldn't cost much to mail, even at Postal Connections." I was very wrong.

I did not know what to expect really, having virtually no experience mailing packages at a private store. They were not forthcoming with information. I asked for the cheapest route possible. The cheapest turned out to be, after the four very small light items were packed up, in one of their boxes and a mailing label on it---over $18. I nearly dropped dead on the spot.

I was so flabbergasted I didn't know what to say. I had to pay it, but I took the other package away and said "no" to having it mailed by them. I had forgotten my wallet. It was not in my purse. I had to excuse myself to go find it in my car out in the icy parking lot. The young clerk was rolling her eyes. I felt like an idiot.

I got back and paid it, and tried to collect my things. She had not discarded the old beat up box I'd used to just bring the small items into the store in. So I had two of those old boxes, and the two packages to try to juggle. I think the clerk thought it was funny. My change spilled out of my ragged wallet onto the floor. I was trying to pick up the coins while juggling the two old empty boxes and the two other boxes. She stood there, rolling her eyes, like I was such a loser.

Outside, frustrated, embarrassed, humiliated, I couldn't even swear properly. I sat in my car awhile, trying not to cry and trying to regain some composure, before I drove all the way to the Post Office in Jefferson.

It's small town friendly and the clerks are actually courteous. There are never two hour lines, like at the Albany Post Office. I paid just over $4 to mail the other package there. It would have cost over twice that or more, to mail at Postal Connection.

I should have come to Jefferson in the first place. I didn't think I could make it, due to the ice on the roads. After the experience at Postal Connection, I would have walked to the Jefferson Post Office, if I had to.

I will never ever go to Postal Connections again in my life.

After that, I went over to the SW Albany location, to search for the sick cat for the woman who now lives in DC. I didn't find the cat, but two streets from her house, where her ex now lives, I found a man with a zillion unfixed cats. I had rolled down my window to ask a neighbor of his, about the sick black cat, and she began telling me about all the unfixed cats next door. So I asked if she'd come with me, to talk to the man next door, about getting them fixed. She did.

He knew the sick cat I was talking about. And he also wants to get all the ones he feeds and has inside fixed. Weather permitting, I told him, I'll take the first ones in on Thursday. Weather permitting. It's supposed to snow tomorrow again, however.