Officially mailed...

Today's trip to the post office was interesting to say the least. First let me explain that I am extremely under the weather. My 101 fever and sore throat made this post office trip one that I'll never forget.

I visited the post office about a week ago to weigh my invitation to see how much postage would be. The kind gentleman responded "Oh! You're getting married...Why?" I smiled and was unsure if that was rhetorical or if that was standard response in DC. He said "Well, good luck with that. It will be $0.98." I smiled and explained that I was hoping they would come in under a dollar. I purchased my $1 stamps and left, prepared to put the finishing touches on my invites. After a week of wrapping and unwrapping invitations (silly mistakes - that's another story), I eventually finished a set of 37, complete with the ever so unattractive 'Rockefeller' $1 stamp. I smiled at the progress I made and looked forward to taking them to the post office first thing Wednesday morning.

Wednesday night came with a high fever, body aches, and a terribly sore throat. Needless to say, I wasn't going to the post office that day. Thursday rolled around and I was not much better. Thursday night seemed promising...or so I thought around midnight. Friday morning I awoke and decided that regardless of my health I was dropping those invitations off TODAY! I mustered up enough strength to put on decent clothes and carry this heavy box of invites to the car. Once I arrived at the post office, I was deep into a jogger's sweat. Drenched, I waited in the infamous post office lines to drop off my envelopes with the postal worker.

As I approached the desk he said, "if they are all stamped just leave them there and I'll get to them." A voice in my head said: 'Id have to be crazy to leave these here without knowing for sure that they have been processed and received.' I smiled and said that I didn't mind wait. THAT WAS A LIE. The post office was packed with people. At some point the room seemed to be spinning. Eventually, the nice postal worker was ready to stamp and receive my mail. He decided to verify the postage weight! BIG MISTAKE. Apparently our marriage-cynic wasn't much of a mathmatician either. He quoted me $0.98 when in fact each was $1.56. Great! More $$. He said these things are too big to run through the meter, so I am going to have to do each one by hand. He seemed more disgruntled at that fact than I. (Which I later realized is because I didn't know what 'doing them by hand' actually entailed.) About 55 minutes later, he finished processing each individual piece of mail. At this point, I was sure I was going to pass out. My throat ached, I was dizzy, hungry, sleepy from not eating, and just all around tired of being at the post office. I paid my $22 for additional postage and left the post office. Boy oh boy am I happy to say...that is over.

Let's just say when I take the final 25 to be mailed, I'll be sure to be well rested and bring a short novel to read.