Wednesday, April 18, 2007

"Forever" is just a moment in time

Went to the post office today to do the usual: mail some things and buy some stamps. It was a good morning for it, I walked in and I was the only one in there. When does that ever happen? When lo and behold, I heard the postwoman tell a patron "stamps are going up to 41 cents on May 15th". Whaaaaat?! I sidled on up to her and said, "whaaaaat???! Didn't stamps just go up?" and she replied, "yes, a year ago." Now, I don't know about you, but I don't just expect things to go up from year to year (yes,yes, rent, of course, and maybe the cost of the bus), so this was a shock to my system. I use the postal service A LOT and every time I buy a whole load of stamps, next thing I know, they up the ante on me and I've got to buy a whole bunch of one and two cent stamps.
I like a solid stamp on an envelope. Just one, solid stamp. I like to pick out the ones I love (really loved the children's book ones, and the rain forest scene,and the Muppet's) and, to me, the one you pick makes a statement. When I had my first solo show, I used the super-hero's stamps for a reason: I was going for it, putting my best super-hero foot forward, here-i-am-world, watch me fly/wrangle a jet/form of an icicle! If you've got all those other little onesies and twosies taking away from the main stamp...well, it's just anticlimactic. Really.
The very nice postal woman then offered me a "forever" stamp, which you can use "forever", but I've bought those stamps before and they have a time limit too. If stamps keep going up in price...um, how forever can they really be?
The only saving grace to the whole debacle is this set, the new 41 cent stamps to be revealed in May. For me, these mean nothing more than a good inside joke*, but, Oh, RK will be so happy! I think I'll have to start mailing things to our own house!


*when rk and i first started dating, we thought it would be a cool, romantic nite to rent a movie. i'd never seen Lord of the Rings and he couldn't believe i'd never seen it and thought i would love it. you know, like introducing something really cool you know about but your new love doesn't...like that. i figured there was a reason i'd never gone to see this film (and, by that time, i think there were about three of 'em made)and i asked him if it had creepy goblins and talking trees... he thought about it and decided on the answer, "not really." turns out, one of the first things IN the movie is a freakyass goblin and then the next thing is talking trees. i closed my eyes just a few minutes into it, covered 'em with my hand for good measure,and soon fell asleep. turns out, Lord of the Rings is not my kind of movie. and, as i eventually revealed (i wasn't hiding the fact,i just didn't know it was that unusual), i was scared shitless by the bar scene in Star Wars.
rk said i shoulda told him that part first. whoops.

5 comments:

Christina said...

please explain a 'forever' stamp.

Anonymous said...

I still love the idea that if I give a guy 41 cents, he'll carry a letter from me in Boston all the way to San Francisco. And he's totally reliable! Nothing ever gets lost in the mail. Really. If you didn't get invited to a party and the party giver told you that your invitation must have be lost in the mail, you would know that's bullshit because nothing gets lost in the mail! Ever! The only rival for reliability is the ATM. ATM's always give you the right amount of money. Always. Ever been shorted? Ever requested $100 and been handed $120? It never happens. And money is tricky...especially new bills. This is a level of reliability that we should celebrate! ATM fees and stamps...I'll pay 'em every time.

Yours, Tim

Anonymous said...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9008787

maybe 'forever' really is...

-c

molly said...

Tim, the guy at the post office, standing in front of me, said almost the SAME EXACT THING! But he said, from san francisco to boston. weird.

molly said...

And, -C, to you, i say, .....good work. you trumped me! (in a good way, of course) thanks for the link and the confidence.