Adventure at the Post Office

I took my fresh, clean, nicely printed and packaged submission package to the post office today. As usual, they didn't quite get it. The post office really needs to be trained to work with authors. Don't get me wrong, I actually love my post office. The people that work there are really nice (except for that one person, and yes, all of us that go there know who that person is.)

Is it that strange that I need a stamp for the envelope that goes inside the manila envelope with enough postage to send all the papers back? Seems simple enough(although hard to explain sometimes!) Would it kill them to put the stamps on straight? I mean, really, it's not a big deal, right? RIGHT? I just spent time making sure the rest all looks nice. Who cares if the stamp looks like I let a two-year-old put it on.

I'm getting pretty used to it. Barely cringed when the stamp was slapped on the manila envelope too. But then... what the heck? I watched in horror as the postal worker flipped my manila envelope over and ripped off the clasp! She looked at me and said, "it costs more with the clasp because they have to put it through a different machine." Okay, well I would have paid more, if I was given the choice! As I looked at the near hole she had put on my envelope I was thankful she didn't rip through the entire thing. Then she tossed it into the pile and smiled.

I've tried to talk to the postal clerks about what I do and why I need to do things this way. Some of them care. Okay, one of them cares. The rest, well... they have a lot to do, I'm sure.