Sunnybunny V. USPS

Kurt Cobain said it best, when he said, “Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you.”

I think anyone could imagine, in my last blog, that I might have seemed a little paranoid. Arguably, however, something was up. I wasn’t getting mail for a long time. It was just… bizarre! Then last Wednesday, I begrudgingly headed down to the chilly garage, where our mailboxes are located, picked up the mail and received validation at last! That, and a fistful of mail all with postmarks ranging from January 6th to January 16th.

Among that pile of post, was my unemployment check that was three weeks late, the notice of my appeal hearing at 8 AM on Monday (for the five weeks the EDD denied me because they believe they overpaid me and suspected me of falsifying my benefit claim form in order to get the money, and – of course, punish first and ask questions later… literally), letters from my union, my banks, insurance. You name it.

Thursday, I went down to my branch of the post office with every intention of having a shit-fit of epic proportions. Instead, when I got there, I found that I have lost my desire to throw said shit-fits. Instead, I had to suppress tears of frustration and resentment when asking to speak to someone who could explain why my mail was being withheld for no apparent reason. After all, it wasn’t that I was just missing my Netflix. These were important documents that I can get from no other source but the US Postal service.

Clearly sensing that I was on the edge of reason, the comically droopy eyed clerk asked me to go stand by a door where a supervisor would appear to speak with me. I walked over and stood there, pushing down weeks worth of fear and anger and anxiety in order to deal with whomever was about to materialize. When the top of the door finally opened, I felt much as Dorothy and her companions must have at the gates of Oz. So many wondrous and terrible things lay behind that tiny window within the door, and the person opening that window stood between me and the end of a long haul of misery.

Luckily, the woman who came to speak with me was pleasant and apologetic. It seems that whomever entered the forward from my previous address when I moved, had entered the correct one, then another forwarding my mail from my current address back to the old one. My mail was going around in circles. If we hadn’t gotten a new carrier on our route, nobody would have ever noticed as the mail is all sorted by machines and it isn’t usually up to the carrier to go through every piece of mail to make sure that it actually belongs to the address it’s being delivered to. He just happened to catch that he’d seen the same piece of mail pass him twice and asked. Thank GOD for Louie, my new carrier!!!

After an unexpectedly lovely conversation with this woman, she then overnighted my benefits claim form to the EDD free of charge and assured me that all would be clear in their system by Monday.

Thank goodness THAT’s over! I’ll be getting my mail, and keeping my dignity. Not a bad deal.