Two Lessons I've Learned in the Past Week

1. The United States Post Office apparently exists only to sell stamps, making it on par with a grocery store, minus all the great food: Well I ordered this totally awesome present from Shutterfly.com for my little friend Elias down in Atlanta. But that was back on November 1st and it still hadn't come yet. So I, being the brilliant young mind that I am, decide to go to the post office to have them track it. Seeing as how I had the delivery confirmation number and all, I didn't think this would be a problem. When I asked the lady to track it she typed the number in and said, "Oh." Curious about what that could mean? I was too. She explained, "Oh. Well it says 'Information not available.' So we don't know where it is." I asked if there was a number we could call and she said, "Oh yes, but they don't answer the phone." I said, "What do you MEAN they don't answer the phone?" She said, "They just don't." So after going back and forth, trying to figure out what happened to this package, she said, "Look, ma'am, we're the United States Post Office and that's not what we do here. We don't track packages. We just sell stamps." I just stared at her for several seconds, wondering if she was thinking about what she just said. Finally I said, "So you're like a grocery store? But without all the food." With no answer to that, I just left. Since then, miraculously I have received the package finally.

2. Products that a store is named for can very well be unavailable for purchase during normal business hours: I needed to refill a prescription and I noticed the time was about an hour until closing for CVS Pharmacy down the street. I said to myself, "Perfect, I can get there with plenty of time before they close." I like to call this My First Uneducated Thought. I drove to CVS, complete with my Spanish textbook with which to study while waiting for my prescription to be ready. Thinking that there would be a prescription to wait for is known as My Second Uneducated Thought. So I enter the store and walk to the back and THEN notice that the pharmacy is closed. I blink several times thinking maybe I'm just imagining the barred screens pulled down above the counter. Fortunately the loyal, hard-working fellow who was given the title of Store Manager happened to be at the front of the store. I asked him why the pharmacy was closed. He said, "Because it closes at 6." I said, "But isn't the store open until 9?" He nodded, giving an affirmative answer to my question. So I immediately followed up with, "And isn't the store called CVS Pharmacy, as in PHARMACY, as in the ENTIRE STORE WAS NAMED AFTER THE PHARMACY?" He nodded. "And don't you think that if a store had the title of PHARMACY, then the pharmacy should be open if the store is open?" He stared at me, not knowing whether it was safer to nod or shake his head no. So I ended with, "If a store was called CVS Sporting Goods but the whole sports section was closed for three hours while the toilet paper section was still open, would that make any sense to you?" Apparently those must have been My Third and Fourth Uneducated Thoughts, as there was no answer to either of those questions. So then I left.