I’m making a quick dash for the post office. Yes I know it closes at 5pm. Yes I know I should have started my journey before 4:38pm, because I live about 15 minutes away. Still, Friday afternoon it should be a breeze right? After all normal people are trying to rush home to their families and jump start their weekend fun. I stop at the stop sign, proceed around the corner to find that everyone in the entire city is at the post office.
Okay, maybe that’s what I get huh? I pull into the overcrowded parking lot and there are no spaces except…da da daah “Handicap Only”. Living in many cities, mostly in the downtown areas. I’ve had my experience with the “I’m just going to run in, it’s okay to park here for a second..” or the “I’m just getting money out of the ATM, no police is going to randomly patrol the bank parking lot to give me a ticket…”. Yet to my amazement I’ve been ticketed, once too many times if you asked me. So learning from my mistakes I decide not to partake in the privileged parking and circle around like a vulture praying someone has given up their space. I circle once, twice, three times, so many times I swear I’m going to get dizzy..all while the time ticks away. I now have 3 minutes to walk into the post office before they lock the doors till Monday.
Finally someone leaves their space and I zip in and run into the post office. The line inside is ridiculous, and the obnoxious Passport picture taker man is asking anyone if they are in line for a “Non-Postal” reason. It’s like dude, it’s closing time, we are INSIDE of the post office. At this point the only reason we are in line is for a “Postal” reason. I watch as this woman standing in front me gets out of line to ask him just what a “Non Postal” reason was. Being the “my time is everything” person I am I casually scoot up. Then she proceeds to slide back in front of me as if I wouldn’t notice. So I don’t say nothing. Then I she again steps out of line to get a box (may I add she had to build it, with no tape, no pen, no nothing!). She again walks right back in front of me. We continue to move closer and closer to the counter. I notice her construction on her box has ceased. To most people it would seem as if she was finished, but my gut was telling me otherwise. Like clockwork, she walks up to the counter and ask “Do you have the Priority Label for this box?”. Seems like a reasonable question right? That was until I looked right next to me at the big sign that said, “PRIORITY LABELS, PLEASE FILL OUT BEFORE REACHING THE COUNTER”.
She turns around and smiles at me and loudly proclaims, “I’m sorry I know I’m holding these people up…”. She continued to hold everyone up while I finally got to the next clerk. I have my package ready and the lady looks at me and says, “You know since it’s after 5, it’s not going to go in until the next day?”. This is why they say “Don’t go Postal!” because not only are they crazy, but they bring the crazy out of you too. I remain calm, do my little countdown, smile and just say, “Ok”. I walk out the same time as the box lady, who is dancing like someone turned on some strobe lights. I hold the door open and watch as she walks over to the handicapped parking space, I should have taken. No handicap sticker, no physical handicap displayed, & no ticket for parking there.
The whole incident just brought out my resentment for Handicapped parking in general. Why are there so many Handicapped parking spaces? And why are the majority of the people parked in them with the stickers not really handicapped. It’s getting so bad these days, there is also, “Expecting Mothers”, “Police Deputy”, and “Employee of the Month” restricted parking. It’s impossible to get a parking space within a 1 mile radius of the actual door. I’m gonna start carrying a cone in my car, with a sign taped to a stick..”I’m Not Handicapped, but I want to park in the front too!” and place it in front of my car every time I go someplace. Wanna bet how fast that sign gets stolen?
