The $138 Halloween Candy

Last week I decided that I was going to send our daughter a care package. I thought long and hard about what to send because there is a Walmart right outside the gates of her university in Shanghai. I know - how sad is that? So she can get pretty much whatever she needs there. But then I realized that since they don't celebrate (?) Halloween there, she probably could not buy any Halloween candy at Walmart. Thus was born the idea to send her a black and orange themed package. I purchased candy, some Halloween socks and some other fun novelty items to send that I thought the students from other countries might enjoy and boxed it all up.

After confirming that the "What can Brown do for You?" folks do actually deliver to China, yesterday I headed over to my neighborhood UPS store. The first thing the guy wanted to know is Katie's phone number. Since her Chinese phone number is about 14 digits long, I don't have it memorized. Nor do I have it in my cell phone since I hope to never call her in China. Strike 1. After weighing and measuring the box, he consulted his computer and proceeded to tell me that I should take it to the Post Office because they (PO) would only charge me $76 to ship the box. Strike 2. The downside, he added, is that while it would travel from here to China via the PO, once there the Chinese mail service would take over. No telling how long - or if - the box would get to her. But he was pretty sure it would. So I asked him what UPS would charge to ship it. Are you ready? $138! Strike 3 and your out. Or I'm outta here. I told him that I am not spending $76 much less $138 to send $10 worth of candy and other sundry items to my daughter. It's not like I'm shipping Mrs. Wryly's awesome cookies or anything. Get real!

I looked online and it appears I can get the small PO box and stuff it with as much as will fit in there. That box will ship to China for $13.25. That still seems like a lot, but I'll probably check that option out. The irony of the whole thing is that as I was pulling out of the parking lot, a PO truck pulled in front of the USP store and the driver entered the business. Have they joined forces or something?

Sunshine on My Shoulder...

I needed to pick up some rolls of stamps today, and thinking the lines would be short (or non-existent) I headed to the Post Office at Crestwood Mall. Surprised to see three people in line at a place that rarely sees three cars in the parking lot anymore, I took my place at the end of the line. The man at the counter was apparently sending something overseas that required custom forms to be completed, so it was going to be awhile. I was checking out the hair of the person (male? female?) in front of me as it looked like it had been colored. Having changed my own hair color this week, I was thinking the color was not quite right. All of a sudden some yellow appeared from under the man's hair. What the heck??? It was a parakeet! What I at first thought was bird crap on the guys shoulder was in fact shells from the seeds the man was feeding the bird over his shoulder. The bird's name was Sunshine. Remember that John Denver song? "Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy..." Could so easily be "Sunshine on my should makes me crappy..."

By now a second employee came out of the back room and took the second person in line over to her counter. She quickly bought a book of stamps, had her letter weighed and stamped, and was on her way. That brought up birdman. He proceeded to tell the clerk how he and Sunshine are inseparable, (in fact Sunshine had showered with him that morning), and he set the bird on the counter for her to admire. Which she did, as the line grew longer behind me.

Package man was still at the counter in front of me, and birdman was chirping on and on about his bird, shutting up only long enough to give the bird kisses. The ladies behind me commented on how pretty the bird was, so birdman then scooped Sunshine up and brought him/her over to be admired and to say hello. HEL-LOOOOO... we're waiting here. Places to go, people to see, and all that. Mail your packages and get the flock out of here.

Luckily package man finished up his business so I could buy my stamps and exit before I showed birdman my bird!