Going Postal

This is a story: no links, no photos.

A trip to the post office is not usually eventful. I wouldn't even have made it to the post office had the online service not been able to complete my PO Box renewal payment. Spending the morning by myself, this was to be my first human interaction of the day and was least of all prepared for an assault.

An older man was the sole customer in line as I walked in, readying his envelope on the counter. As a gesture of politeness I waited for him to complete this task and go ahead of me. He responded equally and signaled for me to go ahead, adding that he had more time than money. Feeling the need for a witty response in uttering my first sentence of the day I countered by saying "so do I". He quickly moved a few steps closer, gave me the once over and asked if I would be interested in earning a little extra money. Clearly, I appear to need more money, and here I thought that I was relatively well dressed for a simple errand. Whoa! Was I being solicited standing in line at the post office? I declined politely yet he continued by offering two CDs for me to watch. I quickly glanced at the tellers hoping that I would be called to the next available booth, but no such luck...yet. I was kicking myself for engaging in a conversation with this man. Since I told him that I was not interested in making money (ha, right) he changed his approach, and I quote "What would you do if you needed a lawyer, let's say the shirt you're wearing today came back from the dry cleaner with a spot on it?". Really, this is your hook? Any reasonable person would ask the dry cleaning service to try removing the spot and if they were unable to do so, to offer amends. I'm not sure what disclaimers these businesses have, but I'm sure to look into it now! In any event, I would hope that there would be less drastic solutions to resolving this matter than involving a lawyer. Instead of articulating this response, I simply counter with "Nothing", believing that brevity was the solution to shutting him down. (Perhaps I should consult a lawyer and sue this guy for unwanted solicitation? As always, these thoughts come long after the event.) With a look of incredulity, he continued to hypothesize, "if you were given a ticket for some traffic violation, would you pay?". "Well, yes (hesitantly)" say I. Again, he appeared flabbergasted but unwilling to give up. Unfortunately, with my adrenalin on the rise, I snapped and started on a tirade about how accidents happen and everything that was wrong with this country was due to people's unwillingness to accept some personal responsibility and litigation being a chief evil, clogging the system, wasting time, energy and money that could otherwise be used more productively. Mercifully, I was interrupted by the post office teller: "Next"!

Do I need to go out more often so I don't appear like a deer in headlights, an easy target? As irritating and surreal as this entire episode felt at the time, I look back on it now and appreciate the unpredictability and random drollness of societal exchanges. How is this helping with my creative energy? Next time, I must find a solution to paying my PO Box fees online...

Content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Blogger's Block

Blogger's Block, sounds like some urban Lego kit don't you think? It is with this premise that I plan to approach the topic. Upon seeing the title, what was your first thought or interpretation, if any? Will she be writing about a street housing bloggers exclusively? Is it like Writer's Block, a commonly recognized term for staring at a blank piece of paper/screen? In this case, "block" implies something negative, preventing you from moving forward. Indeed, we all experience "blocks" in all facets of our lives. What if we thought of "block" as a piece of Lego, which would allow us to build or piece together ideas, just as I am doing right now?

I am painfully aware that the introductory paragraph is littered with question marks, but also note that each question is followed by a statement, if not necessarily an answer. What I am trying to say in a less than erudite way is the following: when faced with an obstacle, your body/mind identifies a stressor, and with that comes the fight or flight response. Ah...is it possible to choose? Not always in the physical sense, but certainly intellectually. I will be the first to admit that I gravitate towards flight, such a lovely word, implying levitation and movement. Fighting sounds aggressive and not altogether pleasant, unless that's your thing. In an ideal world, I would like flight to meet fight.

Enough with the battle of words (i.e. fight) and allow me to present my simple solution. Choose your flight behavior in such a way that it allows you to clear your mind but not stop thinking about what is personally meaningful. I can't tell you what that looks like for you. Maybe it means trolling or posting something on social media or the internet, a shameless plug for what I'm doing. Seriously though, my top two flights which invariably lead me to fight are exercise or a glass of wine, sometimes both but not at the same time. Then I do something silly with my bead inventory as Halloween is just around the corner. So that's how it went for me yesterday and why I decided to write on the subject. The exercise was the catalyst, not the wine, in case you're wondering...

Design and content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.