Correspondence & Conspiracy

Correspondence, originally uploaded by carriemcm.

For some reason, I've had a particular aversion to the post office lately. I've been driving around with a package to be mailed in my car for at least two and a half weeks and a graduation card to be mailed (and written in) for almost a month. But with Father's Day looming and a stack of cards to be mailed, I couldn't avoid the post office any longer.

On the drive over to my local branch I pondered why I'd been avoiding my dear friend the post office. Anyone that knows me knows that I adore receiving mail. Recently a close friend has sent a few unexpected cards and each time I relished them, saving them to be opened after all the junk mail and bills. And I love knowing that I may bring the same experience to my family and friends with the cards and packages I send them. So what's my excuse? I boiled it down to two things: One, email and instant messenger are just too darn convenient. Why spend the time getting out a card, my fancy pen and address book when I could send an email from my computer that is likely already turned on? And two (or maybe this is just an extension of one), I am lazy. Not always, I do have my moments, but in general I am. There, I've admitted it.

Now, onto the conspiracy. I did my Father's Day card shopping a few days ago while the selection was still good, and picked up a variety of cards appropriate to each person (I'm lazy, but when I am going to make the effort to send a card, I take pride in doing it well!). Most of the cards were the typical greeting card size, but two were slightly larger. Nothing fancy, just normal cards. I filled them out, licked 'em closed and off I went to the post office. (I should preface the rest of this by saying, if I had a book of stamps, I would have put a stamp on each and sent them merrily on their way.) After my package was weighed and posted, I requested 5 stamps for the cards. The man behind the counter eyed them suspiciously and asked if any of them were heavy. 'Nope', I replied confidently, but he wasn't convinced and took the stack to weigh them himself. And what do you know, one of the two larger envelopes required TWO stamps! There were no photos or clippings enclosed, nothing at all except my well wishes, and apparantly those wishes weighed an extra stamp on this particular card.

What's more disturbing is the man behind the counter told me this is often the case with larger cards and when they only have one stamp affixed they'll attach a postage due sticker for the receiver to pay the difference. So now the receiver of the card has to pay for the happiness of receiving it! I'm sure I've been guilty of afflicting this double-edged sword of card receiving happiness on my family and friends more than once. All because I had no idea of the conspiracy between Hallmark and the US Post Office to milk us unsuspecting well-wishers out of an extra stamp just because the larger cards are sometimes cuter! Well I've blown the lid off that little secret, feel free to pass it on.

With a new conspiracy theory under my belt, I cross (for now) an on-going #32 off my list: be a better corresponder.