The importance of being earnest

So, with the new gig starting next week, I have been trying to get more organized. I will be going from a boss who makes more mistakes and forgives more f#@$-ups than is legally allowed, to one who is the most anal control freak imaginable (seriously, today, he spent 5 minutes looking for one particular pen because he didn't want to sign a check with the black pen I offered him.) If boss #2 wasn't also a friend, I think I would shoot myself. That may still happen, by the way.

So, I am trying to get into the groove - first goal was to leave the house without having to go back inside for something I forgot. I know that this is possible, because I have seen other people do it on TV. And other people seem to be on-time with some regularity, so they either leave themselves an extra 30 minutes to go back and forth into their homes 10 times, or they are actually organized before they leave.

I was awesome this morning. I had to go to the post office and to the DMV. I needed to renew my license, and inform them of an address change. I remembered to find my lease, to show I really did move from number "60" to number "58" on the same freaking block. I had two things to mail, and since I can no longer swipe envelopes and postage from the office, I remembered to buy both things yesterday. I got everything all ready to go out first thing this morning. Yay, me!

Now one envelope was kinda important, but no big deal if it took a couple days to get to its destination. The second, however, was time-sensitive, since it had to be in the mail before this weekend. (I know, right? I cannot believe that I couldn't do it online). When I checked the fine print, however, I saw that the order had to be in their P.O. Box by 7am Thursday morning. WTF?

Luckily, the POB was just about 30 miles or so away, so I figured I would drive to that post office and have them just put it in the box. Rush hour traffic, snow, an effed-up mocha latte later, and there I was...10 feet from the place it needed to be by 7 a.m. (Side note - the post office's own bin said they only sorted mail from their box at 3 pm - why? It's not like they needed to drive to some remote area to pick it up! And they couldn't just put it in the mail box that was RIGHT THERE! Oh no, they insisted that it had to be sorted and processed. Ugh)

One chore down, I went to the DMV, where I was only about 30th in line and it only took 45 minutes to get a new license. I consider that trip a success, even if the lady at the counter asked me if I needed to change my listed weight (bitch), and I forgot to ask them to register me to vote at the new address. Oh well, I had the new piece of plastic, and it even has a better picture.

A couple other errands, and the fact that I was all done with my Christmas shopping, encouraged me to treat myself to a mani/pedi. I saunter back in my door about 7 hours after I left, all happy with my productive day.

I plopped down on the couch and glanced down at the coffee table. At the papers on the coffee table. At the order that was supposed to be in the envelope at the fracking post office, being sorted even now! Yup, I drove into the airport area at rush hour to mail an empty envelope.

But at least I didn't have to make a special trip back into the house for it!