Truly Vexing

There are some things in life that leave me truly scratching my head. Technology can be one of these things. Today however, I managed to finally figure out how to work my RSS feed successfully. You want to know how to make an RSS feed work please do not ask me. I pushed a lot of buttons, cursed a lot at my computer, and relied heavily on information I found on RSS feeds on Ravelry. It was like a mini tech support. I know that the only way my RSS feed is working is shear dumb luck.

There is something else that vexed me today though. The United States Postal Service. Perhaps if you live outside the US you are fortunate enough to have a more operational postal service than we do. In America the Post Office is a thing of the past (well, almost). They are notorious for being slow and inefficient. And I got to be a part of that joy this afternoon.

I went to drop off some letters that were of some import so I needed to send them through certified mail with a receipt. I tried the automated postage machine but couldn't quite get it to do what I wanted so I admitted defeat and went inside to wait in the line. On a side note, there was a woman at the automated machine that had about 20 packages, all of different sizes, that she was trying to send. Thankfully, she was letting other people cut in front of her as needed, but seriously?!?! At 4:30?!?! Why not come back at, say, 10:00 p.m. The thing is open 24 hours. But I digress.

The line inside the post office wasn't too bad, maybe about 6 people ahead of me. Unfortunately, I had to listen to Who Wants to be a Millionaire? on the tv while I waited (I hate that show). Things are moving along pretty well for awhile until we get to the 2 people ahead of me in line. Then everything just stops. Not like, we're moving slowly, or a teller had to leave for a minute...No, I mean, dead stand still stop for 5 minutes. This doesn't seem like a long time but when you have already been in line for 5 minutes and you have a headache and just want to go home and lie down, 5 more minutes is an eternity. A few minutes later I realize the problem was that one of the tellers had closed her window. I mean, she's sitting there messing with her computer but there is a sign that says "Next Window Please." By now the line is, literally, out the door. The place closes in 5 minutes. Why in the name of all that is holy would you close your window?!?! No wonder you people have a reputation for being incompetent cows!!!

Thankfully about 3 more minutes passed and the line started moving. On another side note: I know my times are totally crazy and probably don't make sense, it didn't really make sense to me either. All I know is that when I left I had been in line for almost 20 minutes. The worst part of this whole ordeal though is that I had left my knitting in the car very foolishly thinking this would be a quick process. I really only have myself to blame.

So, when I (finally) made it home (and after a nap and a quick trip to the gym), I knit.

This is my Honeymoon Cami. Coming along quite nicely thanks to 2 nights of knitting while watching Lord of the Rings (I'm a dork, I know).
And, I have cast on and started working on the second gauntlet.

I started this one this morning. Thanks to a day full of assemblies I was able to make a lot of progress on it.

Tomorrow: Only one more day of work (with students) and, hopefully, no more run-ins with inefficient government agencies.

I do want to say I that I don't truly think all postal service employees are incompetent cows. I just want to point out that some people do not make the best choices when dealing with customers. Or maybe the whole US postal system is jacked. I know how government agencies are. I work for one. And probably the most screwed up agency there is. So, if you work for the postal system and feel I have taken a personal jab at you (which, I hope you realize, I am not) and you want to call me a lazy, uneducated prick, feel free. I work with middle school kids so I have a pretty touch skin.