I walked with Sarah, Jen, and Bill for morning coffee, with an original destination of Dunkin’ Donuts, but Sarah and I ended up at Bruegger’s, while Bill and Jen stopped in Dunkin’ Donuts.
I got a pumpernickel bagel with plain, lite cream cheese, and a small cup of coffee.
On the way back, when we got to the post office, I said, “I’m gonna stop in here; I’ll meet you guys back.”
Inside the post office, although it was only 8:30, there were four people in front of me and the person currently being helped had four or five packages, all different sizes and weights, and all, evidently, going to different locations.
I put my coffee down on a shelf available to address envelopes and fill out forms. As I opened my bagel to begin eating it while waiting in the line, I knocked over my coffee cup and about three-fourths of it leaked across the entire shelf surface, including wetting the bottom of a very thick zip code book.
I pulled a nearby trash can over—which fortunately had a garbage bag in it—so that it was half under the shelf, and I used my hand to stream the moving liquid over the edge of the shelf and into it. Quite the mess.
I figured I’d ask for a paper towel to clean it up when I got served, and while I waited I had to say to one person who came up to the shelf to address his packages, but wasn’t looking before setting them down on the shelf, “I spilled my coffee all over that one,” and indicated the other shelf for his consideration.
When I was finally served, I asked if my envelope that contained my photo card along with my holiday letter weighed more than an ounce and then asked for some paper towels.
I had a good work day today.
At about 10:00, my sister called, and I thought, “Uh-oh. I’m in trouble.” I was supposed to call my parents on Saturday to let them know that we’d decided to forgo Christmas dinner in Greenville, instead coming to Jacksonville and eating at the mess hall, due to dad’s precarious health situation.
As it turned out, my parents had driven up to Greenville over the weekend, so my dad’s doing better, and my mom likes him getting out of the house. So Christmas dinner in Greenville is back on. And thank goodness, because the mess hall doesn’t even serve Christmas dinner. They only open to the public for Thanksgiving dinner! I really lucked out in that whole deal.
Two affirming things happened during the workday today: Sarah brought in some eggnog—an old family recipe—for me to taste, and Jude gave me a gift bag containing some oranges and a box of Trader Joe ChocolateTruffles, which were out of this world. She also gave me a nice card stating how glad she was that I was working with them.
I had a lazy night tonight. I fell asleep for two hours on the couch, got up at 11:00 and was in the bed by 11:30.