41 Boxes Redux

Yes, well, I should really know better than to think that anything Joshua arranged could go smoothly. We started out the day really cookin' with gas here. The man with the van arrived at 9 am, he and Joshua loaded the boxes, and off they went to the post office. I settled down with my papers and my breakfast, secure in the knowledge that I had a good hour before Joshua returned and started talking/making odd noises/banging things around, and so forth.

Then the phone calls from the post office started. The post office told him he was using the wrong boxes and they would all have to be repacked and relabeled. The customs forms (these boxes are going to Switzerland) were the wrong size and THEY all had to be redone (41 of them, remember?). There's no tape at the post office, you'll have to bring it, along with ten new sheets of labels. And of course - you have to come to the post office to help me.

Well, I have to admit that I didn't exactly hurry - and I was right, because just as I got to the front door (labels and tape in hand) to leave, I got another call saying that they were going to let him use the boxes the books were already in, he just had to write out all the new customs forms. So I got to the post office (cleverly) just in time to write out five customs labels, and then off I went.

Now I am absolutely sure that Joshua did not A. read the online instructions properly, B. back them up with a call to the post office, or C. go in person to the post office to double-check this whole operation - all of which I (or any other thinking adult) would have done.

But the boxes are finally really and truly gone, which is all I care about. And I spent the rest of yesterday going to the big Barnes and Noble by Union Square and having a nice lunch and coming home and taking a nice nap - all of which, I assure you, I richly deserved.

And today I took an actual day off (yesterday wasn't really one because of having to go to the post office, of course). I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, then I walked down Bleecker Street to 6th Avenue, wandering in and out of shops and looking at things, then I went over to the Payless at 6th and 18th and bought a new pair of sneakers, there being a large hole in my old ones (well, I paid something like $12 for them about 6 years ago, so they've earned their retirement). And I looked around in Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Filene's, and Old Navy...and altogether had a perfectly lovely time. I even, before I left the house, got around to dying my hair (in my usual inept fashion, but it got done), and I no longer look all faded out.

Aaah. The pleasure of doing nothing for anybody but oneself...can't beat it.

And I got a gorgeous birthday present from my pal Carolyn in Chicago! Two dozen of the most beautiful roses...they are just lovely. Now I wonder if my child has remembered that my birthday is this coming Tuesday (ahem, ahem)?

Love, Wendy