And not the TV show.

On December 8, I mailed by ExpressPost a package to Todd at his deployment centre. It was an MP3 player, a bunch of disks full of music we both like, and some pictures of our time together in Hawaii. ExpressPost....it conjures up some quickness and well, some reliability. At the time, I thought I should maybe take the 30 minute drive and mail it from Washington state but decided it wasn't anything to be worried about. So I sent it from the local 7-11 (which has a CanadaPost outlet). I sent it with insurance, and clearly marked and was assured it would be there in 3-5 days.

And then began to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Checking the tracking site every morning, and no further information. I'm a control freak with stuff like this. I don't feel much trust at the best of times, and once something is out of my hands, I get nervous. Kept telling myself it was nothing to be worried about. With the busy Christmas, I told myself, it was just delayed.

Two days ago, I finally had to admit it's been lost. I called CanadaPost yesterday. I got a very helpful person but there wasn't much she could do. It seems there is no further information on the package after it being scanned into the machine at 7-11. She tried to assure me it wasn't lost, but she didn't sound too sure and well, it's now 2 weeks late. It's not looking pretty. She assured me they would look into it and get back to me immediately. Haven't heard yet.

So I decided, screw it, it's only money and went and bought a new mp3 player. They're cheap right now with Christmas and it turns out the manager at the local London Drugs, upon hearing it was going to Iraq, gave me a 20% discount. I spent today redoing all the disks, reprinting the photos, and rewriting my letter. I even baked some cookies with the intention of sealing them well, but they didn't turn out.

Todd's upset with me for going out and spending more money. He said it was a waste and he felt badly I had to do it, and he also figures that the first package is delayed and he'll get it any day now. Whatever....I wanted to get him something very badly and it really got to me that the first package was missing.

Of course, if I was wearing my tin foil cap, my mind would wander to the clerk who took the package but not without giving me a lecture about how much he disapproved of the US Government policies. But I'm not, I'm sure it just got mislaid somewhere. And the fact that it said "cd player" on the Customs documents surely didn't red flag anyone with sticky fingers. That couldn't happen. Oh no....

Now my decision is do I FedEx the second package? Expensive but possibly more trustworthy, and also only a 15 minute drive from here. Or do I wait until Tuesday, when the post office is open again in the US and take a drive across the border? I can't go tomorrow...Christmas Eve is already getting far too busy as it is.

Ah, this just annoys me so much. More than it should really.