Scenes from a (Strip) Mall

[captainsblog]

The title of this entry draws its inspiration from (a) the Woody Allen film of that name that I barely remember; (b) the This American Life episode from a couple weeks back based primarily on events at a Nashville shopping mall but most memorable for its depiction of (literally) dueling factions of real-bearded shopping-mall Santas; but mainly (c) the events of the day, this the first Real Day Back At Work Of 2009™ for most of the US.

I was restocking my postage, as in the sheet of 42-cent stamps for return envelope variety, at the Automated Postal Center located, squatly and robotically, in the lobby of the Post Orifice/customer service center at the nearby strip mall known as Williamsville Place. There was one shipper/shopper ahead of me in the queue for the machine, and while she had a large quantity of packages, she was amazingly adept at working the machine through its paces, and I was so admiring of her keyboard talents, I barely noticed how long it was taking,....

until a little kid, returning from the Snail Mail counter with his dad and brother, proceeded to throw up his entire lunch at the very second he passed through the security-tape barrier separating the lobby from the twenty-people-deep line leading up to the postal counter proper.

At least it landed on one of those ubiquituous wintertime laundry-service floor mats.

I thought about putting off my purchase, but the game, literally, was afoot. I decided to place a mental bet on what would happen first: the Disgruntled Postal Worker's cleanup of the hork, or my predecessor's completion of her robotic weighing/pricing/labeling/charging of her dozen or so remaining items:



The private sector beat the civil servants. Handily. I was out of there myself, robotic stamps in hand, before anyone showed up with a mop.

Comments

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

Ummm....congratulations?