I love my wedding ring. It's gorgeous and unique, made of rosewood and quartz. It's very personal to me and my husband because the band of quartz in the ring comes from a rock that we picked up on the island where we got engaged in Sweden. It holds a lot of meaning as well as memories. I just hope I get to see it again!
Those who know me well know that I can be a bit of an idiot. And if not, they at least know that I panic about being an idiot and making mistakes. I'm doing that right now. See, I recently mailed my ring to the artist who made it to get it re-polished. Since it's made of wood, it requires a bit more care than a metal ring. It was starting to lose its varnish in places and I wanted to get it touched up while I'm back in America to avoid having to send the ring through international mail (God knows what could happen on a plane crossing the Atlantic!). I contacted the ring company in advance to explain my situation and timeframe. Fine, they say. Good, I thought. On my first day here, I posted the ring. But here's where I screwed up (see, doesn't take me long!): I paid for return postage and Certified Delivery. The thing is, Certified Delivery only works if it's checked in at the Post Office. Otherwise, it's just a package sent with a label on it and a useless tracking number.
The lovely customer service rep at the ring company has been in contact to let me know when the ring was received, putting my mind at ease because I knew it was in good hands. I emailed yesterday to check up and she told me that she had mailed it back to me just a few hours earlier. She gave me the tracking number. "Yay!" I thought! I'm going to get my ring back soon! (Tight squeeze though cuz there's no mail on Thursday and I leave on Saturday, so I'm already a bit nervous about that.) I log onto the Post Office website to enter my tracking number. Doesn't work. That's strange. Must be because they've not had a chance to log it in yet. I let it go at that and go to bed, content that I'll soon get my gorgeous little ring back.
I wake up with a panic - not a huge, full-blown panic...just a small, baby panic: I bet the customer service rep from the ring company didn't check the package in at the Post Office. That's why there's no tracking number. So now, Certified Delivery is useless - it just hangs on like the stupid, little, meaningless tag that it is. Which is OK, because I don't really need for it to be sent certified - it just made me feel better when I mailed it to know I could track it. But this is what does make me nervous: the United States postal service is not necessarily known for its efficiency, attention to detail or common sense. So now I'm afraid that my package will get lost because it'll get passed down the pipeline with this tag just asking to be scanned, but can't be because it was never checked in in the first place. I can just picture the scene: grumpy postal worker scans the tag. It won't read. Grumpy postal worker shakes scanner. Tries again. Still doesn't read. Hmph. Gets mad and tries again. Damn scanner doesn't work! Double hmph! Too much mail, can't allow this little bugger to hold things up. Grumpy postal worker tosses package into a holding bin to deal with later. Package sits there. Twiddling its thumbs. Humm dee hum. Waits. Is anyone going to get me. Another piece of mail falls on top of it. Hey! it says. Watch out! Continues to wait. More mail falls on it. And still more. Until my lovely little package sits at the bottom of a holding bin, much like a holding cell. And gets forgotten. For God knows how long.
So I may very well never see this ring again. I hope not...I mean I do still have hope. I just have little faith in humanity. If only the kind rep at the ring company had checked my package in. Or took the Certified Delivery label off. The worst part: I spelled this out in my original directions to her. So she's the one who messed up. But it doesn't feel that way - I still feel like the idiot. The idiot without a ring.
Those who know me well know that I can be a bit of an idiot. And if not, they at least know that I panic about being an idiot and making mistakes. I'm doing that right now. See, I recently mailed my ring to the artist who made it to get it re-polished. Since it's made of wood, it requires a bit more care than a metal ring. It was starting to lose its varnish in places and I wanted to get it touched up while I'm back in America to avoid having to send the ring through international mail (God knows what could happen on a plane crossing the Atlantic!). I contacted the ring company in advance to explain my situation and timeframe. Fine, they say. Good, I thought. On my first day here, I posted the ring. But here's where I screwed up (see, doesn't take me long!): I paid for return postage and Certified Delivery. The thing is, Certified Delivery only works if it's checked in at the Post Office. Otherwise, it's just a package sent with a label on it and a useless tracking number.
The lovely customer service rep at the ring company has been in contact to let me know when the ring was received, putting my mind at ease because I knew it was in good hands. I emailed yesterday to check up and she told me that she had mailed it back to me just a few hours earlier. She gave me the tracking number. "Yay!" I thought! I'm going to get my ring back soon! (Tight squeeze though cuz there's no mail on Thursday and I leave on Saturday, so I'm already a bit nervous about that.) I log onto the Post Office website to enter my tracking number. Doesn't work. That's strange. Must be because they've not had a chance to log it in yet. I let it go at that and go to bed, content that I'll soon get my gorgeous little ring back.
I wake up with a panic - not a huge, full-blown panic...just a small, baby panic: I bet the customer service rep from the ring company didn't check the package in at the Post Office. That's why there's no tracking number. So now, Certified Delivery is useless - it just hangs on like the stupid, little, meaningless tag that it is. Which is OK, because I don't really need for it to be sent certified - it just made me feel better when I mailed it to know I could track it. But this is what does make me nervous: the United States postal service is not necessarily known for its efficiency, attention to detail or common sense. So now I'm afraid that my package will get lost because it'll get passed down the pipeline with this tag just asking to be scanned, but can't be because it was never checked in in the first place. I can just picture the scene: grumpy postal worker scans the tag. It won't read. Grumpy postal worker shakes scanner. Tries again. Still doesn't read. Hmph. Gets mad and tries again. Damn scanner doesn't work! Double hmph! Too much mail, can't allow this little bugger to hold things up. Grumpy postal worker tosses package into a holding bin to deal with later. Package sits there. Twiddling its thumbs. Humm dee hum. Waits. Is anyone going to get me. Another piece of mail falls on top of it. Hey! it says. Watch out! Continues to wait. More mail falls on it. And still more. Until my lovely little package sits at the bottom of a holding bin, much like a holding cell. And gets forgotten. For God knows how long.
So I may very well never see this ring again. I hope not...I mean I do still have hope. I just have little faith in humanity. If only the kind rep at the ring company had checked my package in. Or took the Certified Delivery label off. The worst part: I spelled this out in my original directions to her. So she's the one who messed up. But it doesn't feel that way - I still feel like the idiot. The idiot without a ring.
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