7 months earlier...
7 months ago was my birthday. Being in a long distance relationship has never been easy (nor cheap) but K and I have tried to make the most out of it. I had wanted to celebrate the day of my birth with him but since he couldn’t come over yet, he sent me a great present and wrote me a wonderful note instead.
The present was (can I write about it?? Hehe) a personalized “pull” (in Filipino: “sweater” ra diay) with a fabulous drawing (since K is quite a talented artist) and a pair of boxing gloves, to name a few. I was so excited to receive it (as I had begun to get hooked to boxing at that time) and when I got the notice from the post office I immediately went there to claim it.
Long story short, they asked me to pay a P3,500 tax for my BIRTHDAY PRESENT (half the price of the present) and so in not so ladylike terms I sorta told them to take a long walk over a short pier, dive headfirst, and never resurface. They didn’t even allow me to read the “birthday card” inside! Grrrr…
That marked the end of my post office days—or so I thought. A month after I asked them to send it back, the package still had not reached the sender. So I had to take a trip to the post all over again—this after having consulted 3 lawyer friends of mine. Seriously.
In the end, they told me they had sent it on January 12 and that I should just wait for it. They even showed me their books indicating such.
And so we waited…and waited…K came over to the PH to spend the holidays…he came back to BE…we waited some more…and waited still…I packed my bags and moved to Belgium and we waited again… winter went, spring came, and summer is almost here…well, I guess you get the picture.
But alas! The other day we got a note from the post informing us that an international package was waiting for us. More specifically, a return to sender package. We really hoped for the best and expected the worst. I will not begin to narrate the horror postal stories my trainees had shared with me.
I was finally able to open my present yesterday. Amazingly, everything was there (what a disappointment! ;). Now I hold the hopes of so many others who have been waiting for their mail (e.g. K’s aunt who sent a parcel to Mexico from Belgium in 2007). That package give people like me hope…and so much more. There is a God.
From now on we really ought to take the term SNAIL MAIL to heart.
Thank you post office. You didn’t fail me after all. ;P
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