Erasure

So Wednesday night I went to the post office to get the mail from my post office box. I hadn't been to pick my crap up in a couple weeks, which is one of the reasons I have the box, the other being I've moved seven times in seven years and never had to change my address. I immediately noticed that my box had a shiny new lock. Perplexed, but stupidly optimistic, I tried my key anyway. It didn't work.

I was thoroughly confused. I had paid my box rent back at the beginning of August (on my birthday, in fact), meaning I was paid up through January. I thought that it had been a while since I'd picked up my mail, but they'd never changed my lock before no matter how long I went. Since it was after hours I had to wait until the next day (yesterday) to find out what was going on. Perhaps the postal employees, driven by the monotany of their work, decided to play a cruel practical joke on me, I thought. "Haha, we changed your lock, just wanted to see how long it would take you to notice. Just kidding."

I went in to the post office yesterday. I ended up getting the one woman who has worked there for years, and knows me, at least by sight. I told her about my problem. She seemed confused and went to the back to check their files. The other guy said he thought my box rent had lapsed. Exasperated, I told them I had just paid in August, showed them my carbon copy of the check, that I had even come into the post office and not mailed my check. The woman came back from the back with the paperwork showing that I had paid and my box should have been renewed. The manager (or some sort of manager) was standing right there and as soon as this was discovered he said, "Who was supposed to take care of this?" in that "manager voice" that implies some one is in trouuuuuble. Then he quickly says, "We'll figure that out later, take care of fixing the problem now." Well done, guy. I hope none of the clerks get in trouble, because they've always been nice and helpful to me. They gave me a new key and I have my box back. I guess somebody's going over my 'file' and may or may not call me because they took my phone number.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the other problem. They sent all my mail back. Return to Sender-ed all of my mail for the last two weeks or so. My credit card bills, my bank statements, my magazines, everything. What the hell am I supposed to do about that? There's no precedent I can think of for this situation. Should I just start calling places and saying something like, "Hey, just wanted to let you know my address is still the same, even if all my shit got sent back. Yeah, yeah, totally the same."? I pay all my bills online, so nothing will be late, but it's damn inconvenient.

I've never had any problems with the post office people before. How could they do this to me? It's so mean! It's like being friends with some one for seven years and then one day they just punch you in the ovaries (or kick you in the nuts, you know, whatever you're packing), really hard, for no reason.