Happy Halloween from the USPS

As a lot of people know, I love mailing stuff - for some reason I really enjoy writing out letters, putting stamps on them (along with an enormous amount of stickers), and dropping them in the blue box in hopes that the United States Postal Service will deliver my letter to its proper locale. Turns out this is more hoping then you would imagine. My letters have a tendency not to arrive timely or sometimes not at all. For instance, I sent Cody's mom a thank you card once and it took 11 days to get to Tallahassee. Another time I sent Cody's sister and her family a letter with the correct address including the +4 zip code, only to have it returned as "undeliverable." I then put the "undeliverable" card in an envelope addressed identical to the first and it made it there just fine. The most recent example was a Halloween card I sent my mom.

It all started when Cody's mom had this great idea to make scrapbook-type birthday cards for Cody and I last year. They were the greatest things you could imagine - it was a long accordion fold-up card that she put pictures from different birthdays on in scrapbook style. I still have them sitting out and show them to just about anyone who will look at them. Anyway, as I was organizing some old pictures, I came across some from various old Halloween photos and thought I would put them into one of those mini-scrapbook cards for my mom. So I spent quite some time getting everything together (Cody even helped) and finally made a card that I thought was really special and meaningful. I mailed it off on October 24th and even made sure to take it to the Post Office to ensure I had enough extra postage on it.

Well, Halloween came and went and everyone else got their Halloween cards, except my mom. I filled out a lost mail form at the Post Office and nothing turned up. Months and months went by and it really irked me that of all the mail I send, this one card really meant a lot to me and had some really old pictures on it and this is the piece they lost. I filled out more lost mail forms and again nothing came up. Well, Friday night when Cody and I were out celebrating St. Patrick's Day my mom called. And guess what - of all things, she finally got the card in the mail!! FIVE MONTHS after I mailed it, my Halloween card finally arrived!! She said it was in good shape, didn't look beat up or anything, and was even postmarked 10/24/05. On one hand I can't believe it took them FIVE MONTHS to deliver the card, but on the other, I'm just so very thankful it was finally delivered at all. So, Happy Halloween Mom, from the USPS!