- Joined
- Dec 17, 1999
- Messages
- 3,412
As DISAplaooza approaches we are starting to mail out the credentials to the TSM party and Seminar. Teresa is doing the bulk of these mailings but in order to make things a little easier on her I am handling the international mailings.
Just as an FYI for anyone who has never mailed anything from the US to an international location you need to fill out a customs form for items that exceed a certain weight/do not fit into a standard flat envelope. No big deal - takes a few minutes to fill out and is no more than a small nuisance.
On Saturday morning I had all of our international guest’s credentials packaged and labeled and all of the customs forms completed and off I went to the post office.
I'm standing in line at the post office and I'm running the scenario in my head...'If that lady goes fast I can get the good post office clerk.....if this one and that one are slow I can still get the OK clerk....please, please, please don't let me get John (name changed to protect his identity).
John is a very nice man but somehow feels that it is his right to know exactly what I'm mailing, why I'm mailing it, if it is part of some kind of anti-government plot and most importantly...do I want delivery confirmation?
I understand this is his job but he asks me this laundry list of questions for every package I mail out as well as asks personal questions about the content. It can get a little frustrating, especially when you have several items to mail.
Once I reconcile to the fact that I will get John I decide I am going to play along and make this go as smoothly as possible so I can be home as quickly as possible - I also don't want to wind up in Post Office Jail.
Up to the counter I go - exchange pleasantries - tell him I have a bunch of items to mail internationally and I have everything filled out and collated for him so that it's nice and easy.
He takes a look at the first package and says "What are credentials?"
I pause for a moment and ask "What do you mean?"
He points to the customs form where I wrote in the item description field - 'credentials'.
Now my mind is racing - is he having trouble reading my writing? Does he want to know what the credentials are for? Am I going to have to explain the DIS and Dreams Unlimited Travel and the Podcast and Mousefest and DISApalooza and everything else that has happened in my life for the past 10 years to John the postal clerk just to get these mailed out?
OK - deep breathe - "I'm not sure I understand what you're asking me?"
He repeats "What are credentials?"
Pause - silence - I then blurt out louder than I probably should "Are you telling me you don't know what the word credentials mean?"
Blank stare.
OK - I try to explain - "Credentials are something someone would have to show to gain access to a place or event".
Blank stare.
"Like your postal ID" - I point to his work ID hanging from his lapel.
"OH - you mean badges" he says as if he finally figured out that algebra problem that has plagued him his high school.
OK – I’ll play along "Yes, yes – these are badges" I say, happy to think I might get out of here by supper time yet.
"Well, you’re going to have to rewrite all of these because people don’t know what credentials are so you better write badges on them".
Blank stare – this time from me.
"Are you telling me I have to rewrite all of these customs forms?"
"Yep" he says "and you can stand over there and rewrite them and then get back in line when you're done."
I snatch the first one from his hands, causing sparks, and write the word ‘badges’ under ‘credentials’ and hand it back to him. “Here, you start processing this one and by the time you get done with that I bet I have the rest of these changed".
He wasn’t happy but he did it and within 20 minutes we were done.
He did ask me at one point what the DIS Unplugged was but I pretended my phone rang and I started a fake conversation with Kevin………………..
Just as an FYI for anyone who has never mailed anything from the US to an international location you need to fill out a customs form for items that exceed a certain weight/do not fit into a standard flat envelope. No big deal - takes a few minutes to fill out and is no more than a small nuisance.
On Saturday morning I had all of our international guest’s credentials packaged and labeled and all of the customs forms completed and off I went to the post office.
I'm standing in line at the post office and I'm running the scenario in my head...'If that lady goes fast I can get the good post office clerk.....if this one and that one are slow I can still get the OK clerk....please, please, please don't let me get John (name changed to protect his identity).
John is a very nice man but somehow feels that it is his right to know exactly what I'm mailing, why I'm mailing it, if it is part of some kind of anti-government plot and most importantly...do I want delivery confirmation?
I understand this is his job but he asks me this laundry list of questions for every package I mail out as well as asks personal questions about the content. It can get a little frustrating, especially when you have several items to mail.
Once I reconcile to the fact that I will get John I decide I am going to play along and make this go as smoothly as possible so I can be home as quickly as possible - I also don't want to wind up in Post Office Jail.
Up to the counter I go - exchange pleasantries - tell him I have a bunch of items to mail internationally and I have everything filled out and collated for him so that it's nice and easy.
He takes a look at the first package and says "What are credentials?"
I pause for a moment and ask "What do you mean?"
He points to the customs form where I wrote in the item description field - 'credentials'.
Now my mind is racing - is he having trouble reading my writing? Does he want to know what the credentials are for? Am I going to have to explain the DIS and Dreams Unlimited Travel and the Podcast and Mousefest and DISApalooza and everything else that has happened in my life for the past 10 years to John the postal clerk just to get these mailed out?
OK - deep breathe - "I'm not sure I understand what you're asking me?"
He repeats "What are credentials?"
Pause - silence - I then blurt out louder than I probably should "Are you telling me you don't know what the word credentials mean?"
Blank stare.
OK - I try to explain - "Credentials are something someone would have to show to gain access to a place or event".
Blank stare.
"Like your postal ID" - I point to his work ID hanging from his lapel.
"OH - you mean badges" he says as if he finally figured out that algebra problem that has plagued him his high school.
OK – I’ll play along "Yes, yes – these are badges" I say, happy to think I might get out of here by supper time yet.
"Well, you’re going to have to rewrite all of these because people don’t know what credentials are so you better write badges on them".
Blank stare – this time from me.
"Are you telling me I have to rewrite all of these customs forms?"
"Yep" he says "and you can stand over there and rewrite them and then get back in line when you're done."
I snatch the first one from his hands, causing sparks, and write the word ‘badges’ under ‘credentials’ and hand it back to him. “Here, you start processing this one and by the time you get done with that I bet I have the rest of these changed".
He wasn’t happy but he did it and within 20 minutes we were done.
He did ask me at one point what the DIS Unplugged was but I pretended my phone rang and I started a fake conversation with Kevin………………..
I wanted to be the one to say it ! 
