A Break Down

Rainy days, though they are my favorite type of days weather wise, are perhaps more often than not dreary days. Perhaps this is why people dislike it when it rains, for it, the rain, gives them a premonition of things to come. Unfortunately for all of us, the premonitions are always of devious sorts. I tend to try to ignore these premonitions and look towards each day as being one filled with promise--promise that is accessible, reachable, and obtainable. Not only do I look at each rainy day in this respect, but all days in this respect. It does not make it easier to live each day, but rather, easier to think each day, no matter how the previous day nor how the morning started off, I can keep a clear mind.

Unfortunately, my outlook seemed to be tested on this day. Oh let me tell you, it was tested and tested really well. I woke up so late that I wanted to off myself. How could I sleep more than 30 minutes later than I wanted? I wanted to wake up at ten o'clock, but loe and behold I get up at ten thirty-seven. That was thirty-seven minutes of my life that I just wasted sleep, what a sin I committed. I literally wanted to slam several books at the computer for managing to keep me up that previous night talking to friends and then playing games past the two o'clock hour. However, I managed to keep my cool after breathing in heavily.

The goal of the day was to simply go out and mail a letter. However, being that it was Friday and that I cannot drive until one of the parents comes home with the car, I found myself in yet another jar of bread and butter pickles. To top the pickle jar, mailing the letter incurred upon me a trip to the post office. Due to the spiraling costs of gas, I figured that the United States Postal Service had to raise the cost of a stamp. Yes folks, we still have a stamp tax even after the American Revolution, the war in which America gained its independence from Great Britain, it seems that we fought to get rid of something that is now back in place, what’s up with this!?. The stamp rose to an astounding 41cents (previously it was 39cents, which has been raised countless times in my short lifetime; I believe it was raised even less than two years ago). What this equates to, is simply that my stamps at home (even though I had none, but my step mom had one), were now not enough to cover even the cost of mailing one letter. Therefore, I have to run to the post office and get a 41-cent stamp.

The time to go to the post office came fast, literally one hour before it closed. To my utter horror, we had to go to the library because of my brother's library book that was due. I am not going to go into the details, but it is a book he claimed that smelled too bad to read--which under normal circumstances would be believable but he had the book for over four weeks! Therefore, my brother, my dad, and I rushed to the library. My brother, Byron, wanted to check out a book so we spent about 15 minutes going around. Had I not been trained to be patient, I could have imagined that I would have erupted into a fury. Needless to say we were out in no time and made it to the Post Office, which was across the street.

The Post Office was the test of the day! Ignoring the exclamation mark, I can bluntly say that it was not that fun. It was filled with confusion, massive imbroglio even. I ran inside, expecting the trip to be less than one minute, and was approached with two sights, both of which were not that good: the line on the inside was long and then the line for the automated machines was long. I managed to make it up to the 41-cent stamp machine and saw the newest innovation, the Forever Stamp. Apparently, for people like me who are annoyed by the rising costs of postage in the United States, they have decided to try to buy us over to their cause. These stamps are deemed to last forever, meaning they will be able to account for whatever cost the postage for one standard letter may be today and tomorrow. However, the catch is that you have to insert $8.20 into the machine for a book of stamps. Moreover, loe and behold, on this rainy day, I had only a twenty dollar bill, a five dollar bill, and a one dollar bill. The machine does not accept 20's! "Curses, Blasted, Fudge Cookies," I yelled. I then went to the normal machine and had to wait about ten minutes or so for the woman in front of me to count out her money. Machines are funny for they are always hard to understand how to operate, especially the money hungry ones. No matter the way your money, they always spit it right back at you. To get it to go in, you have to master the art of throwing it into the machine gently and having a perfectly crisp dollar bill, usually no one has both. For me, of course, the woman had neither. All that I remember is that I had to give her some of my money because it would not take her’s. I stepped up to the plate and threw my money in. I was in another pickle because now I had to choose a combination of 39-cent stamps and 1-cent stamps to equal the price of a 41-cent stamp. With only a dollar bill, I put that in and bought two 39-cent stamps and four 1-cent stamps. This was the only good thing that happened thus far. Now was the weird part. I’m used to using self adhesive stamps, so when I saw that I could not peel off these lick-on stamps for about ten minutes I was ready to bash my head on the doors and scream out loud. I cooled down again and breathed in heavily, and then I ran into the line, (which after spending twenty minutes doing this entire charade) that was empty. I asked the post woman how to put the stamp on and she said to lick it. We had a laugh for a long time as I licked and handed her the letter.

As I look back now, this day was extremely tragic, a few things really could have made this rainy day not as hectic and unfortunate as it turned out to be. First, had I woke up on time; I would have felt more refreshed and not had to waste the world’s limited supply of oxygen by breathing heavily not once, but twice. Second, had I had a car I could have gone to the postage office in the morning and gotten a stamp, or, if push came to shove, sent it out via USPS. Third, had the price of gas not gone up, the price of postage would not have gone up, ergo, I would not have had to use a stamp and could have just asked my step mom for the stamp. Fourthly, had we not stopped at the library, I could have had more time to fumble around or either just line up in the line as I originally planned. Fifthly, had the machines not been so money hungry and stupid, I could have gotten a stamp faster or have even gotten a self-adhesive stamp. Maybe even lastly, had the United States kept the Stamp Tax from ever coming back, since they did fight against it when it was enacted by the British, I would not even have needed to go out to get a dumb stamp for mail anyway, and thus this cascade of events would have been prevented.

What was gained from the events of today shows that patience is really a virtue. However, with a quick to anger attitude and events falling down everywhere, someone could have really chose to break down today in the middle of the Post Office. Ultimately speaking, that which was gained is simply that the weather did not dictate these events to happen, as premonition would suggest. So though, I did not keep my mindset of seizing the day, I still proved that one could make it through the rainy day with a clear mind, simply by breathing heavily.