LIGHTEN UP ON THE SHIPPING CREW, PEOPLE

This afternoon I drop a couple of packages off at my local UPS store.  I don't like to park in front of the store because it is super-difficult to get out of the tiny lot.  Backing up into the street is like trying to join a Formula 1 race from a dead stop.  I usually park across the street in the pay-lot, but I try to get the only "fifteen-minute parking"  spot, which is free.

Someone is already parked in "my free parking spot."  I park a little ways away from the store and the occupied fifteen-minute free spot, cough up a quarter, and put the ticketed time on my dashboard.  Grabbing the two bags with the two boxes to ship, I race across the street through the frigid wind-chill and prepare to stand in long holiday-shipping lines.

But, none such lines exist.  I am the only customer in the place.  One of the workers is aghast that he didn't see me coming so he could help with the packages.  No worries, I tell him, I parked in the lot across the street.  The clerk weighing the boxes is trying to hold a serious conversation with me, which, after a long day with middle schoolers, just isn't going to happen.  I cannot be remotely serious.  I joke around, and, eventually, he does, too.

The money to ship is about thirty dollars less than I anticipate, so I'm feeling mighty happy.  Rather than use my credit card, I scrounge up the last of my dollars and change to pay the bill.

As I am leaving, the clerk thanks me for being so pleasant.  Then, he thanks me again ... and yet again.  He stammers, "We don't get many pleasant people in here this time of year."

That makes me sad.

Look, people: The lines at the local UPS store will always be shorter and more efficient than the crowded post office, and the workers are just trying to do their jobs.  I'm quite disappointed in my fellow humanity that this is where we are -- bitching out the UPS counter clerks during the busiest shipping season of the entire year. 

Lighten up, people; lighten up.