The Post Office

I just came from the post office. It's hard to explain my love-hate affair with the post office. I love getting mail or the bags of books the UEC occasionally receives through our address. It's nice its within walking distance of our apartment. And it works on Saturdays.

You can also buy soap and shampoo at the post office, subscribe to newspapers and magazines, buy greeting cards, use the internet, and If you are retired or an invalid, you line up at the beginning of the month to receive your pension. Yes, it's also the Social Security office, at least the money-giving-out side. Sometimes, you can even manage to buy a stamp.

Today I was just so lucky. Yesterday, I went to the post office but both stamp selling windows had already closed though the post office was still open. Only two windows sell stamps. The others are busy with pensions and soap purchases. Today, I made sure I got there before the stamp selling windows could possibly close but, alas, they were both closed. It was after lunch and before closing so I thought for sure they would be open. Unlike yesterday, there were two people sitting at one of the windows. Had I been fresh off the boat, most likely I would have turned around and left (if I knew enough Ukrainian to know that "zachynino" means closed). But since my mind has adopted the Ukr mindset on a few matters, I decided to try my luck and with my accented Russian asked "Where can I buy stamps?" knowing all too well that this window possesses the holy grail. Since the lady had sold me stamps many, many times, she knew I had learned to play the game. "What kind of stamp do you want?" she asked. "Air mail," I demured. "How many?" she quipped. "One" I answered, spoken with a tone of slight defiance. "3 hryvnya 50" she replied.

I had won. After 11 years, I finally won.

I mailed my Social Security tax payment to the IRS in Dallas. I hope it arrives on time and that they appreciate the stamp.