Trippin

I traveled Seattle to North Carolina today (March 31st) and it has already been a memorable trip. Here's some of the highlights...


I got a haircut from my friend Carina in Seatac. It was awesome and she didn't charge me! That was amazing...the day got weird after that.


We were delayed getting into Chicago (my first stop). We circled in a holding pattern for about 45 minutes. It was like being on the "It's a Small World" ride at Disneyland (with the same number of screaming kids) and not being able to get off.


When I deplaned I couldn't help but think about the fact that Chicago must be proud to have Obama in the White House. As I speed walked to my gate I noticed that the portly gentleman in front of me was wearing an "Commemorative" Obama shirt. I made my move to go around him and nearly bumped into a John McCain look-a-like, only with better posture. I wish I had a camera, more time and guts to take his picture.


Within minutes of arriving in Raleigh I was invited catfishing, or catfish fishing. I think I'm going.

After an hour (no joke) of waiting for our bags at baggage claim, someone decided to check on the status of our bags.

As it turns out not a single bag was loaded onto our plane in Chicago...not a single bag. How does this happen? How do you "forget" to load an entire plane's worth of luggage?

Needless to say people weren't happy and the glorified closet that doubled as the baggage office was flooded with people trying to figure out how to get their bags.

The situation escalated when the baggage staff tried to shut the door to deal with a few customers at a time. The mass of people pushed in on the door and it quickly turned into what I can only describe as an episode of Jerry Springer. Not wanting to be caught in the middle, I quickly grabbed a phone number and made a dash for my rental car.

USPS

I went to the post office yesterday to mail someting. It was somewhat urgent and I was hoping to get it to the recipient by the next day. Two days wouldn't have killed me, but one day was ideal.


When I walked in there was no line...this in and of itself is a miracle. I walked right up to the counter and asked about and appropriate envelope for a next day delivery. I was shown to the envelope display and given the full history of envelopes and the United States postal service. Once I turned around, enveloped and was ready to mail...the line was huge. I had no other choice but to wait.


Finally getting to the counter, I let the lady know where and when I needed to mail my envelope. Here's how the conversation went...

Postal Lady - (Looking down at her screen)- "we can have it there tomorrow for $19.67"
Brice (Waiting)
Postal Lady - "...or you cold send it Priority for $8.53."
Brice - "when will that get there?"
Postal Lady - "tomorrow"
Brice (waiting and thinking why would I pay $19.67!?)
Postal Lady -"...or you could send it first class for $1.42."
Brice - "when will that get there?"
Postal Lady - "tomorrow."

At this point I noticed that my mouth was wide open in awe, I shook my head in disbelief and told her I wanted to pay $1.42.

...are you kidding me?