Murphy And I Are Still Friends.

November is a huge birthday month in my family. My brother Tom is on the 2nd. My sister Michelle is on the 8th. My mom is on the 17th. My sister Mary is on the 26th. Just for grins and giggles, my dad's birthday is on October 14th and my brother Phil's birthday is December 8th. I'm the only one with enough sense to be born after the holidays (February 1st for those who wish to know!).

Since I can't celebrate with my family in person, I figured I would sent each of them a card through the mail (although my frugal little heart really had to fight that one out... I mean, come on, the group just left and think of all the money I could save on postage by sending the cards back with them!!!) Nevertheless, I figured it might be nice to receive something through the mail besides bills and credit card offers. Plus most people haven't ever received anything from overseas and Thailand definitely counts as overseas.

So with the thought in mind that my sister's birthday is Saturday, I took Pookie up on the offer to go to Future Park - the five-story mall right down the road where we spend waaay too much time:). There were seven of us and we split into two groups: Pookie, Berm, and I in one group and the rest in the other group. Pookie headed off in the direction of her bank while Berm and I entered the post office.

[Insert elevator music here]

Mass chaos was taking place when we entered, so we figured we came to the right place!!! We joined the oh-so-long line, decided instead to grab one of those "take a number" cards, and then waited. The post office clerks were on #97 and we held #115 and 116 in our hands. Figuring that the "express" lane would go faster, we decided to put our cards back and stand in line.

I have lots of experience of "people watching" in the post office, and this time was no different - well there was the whole language thing, but besides that there was no difference! So I stood and waited and watched and waited and moved and waited and watched the number ticker climb higher and higher. I couldn't figure out the hold-up in the "express" lane, but I did notice that number ticker advance from 97 to 105. My line stayed the same and the ticker went to 106.

By the time it hit 113, I just started chuckling to myself. You see, I have a long relationship with Murphy and so it really shouldn't have been a huge surprise to me that Murphy followed me to the Thailand Post Office! As I inched my way to the front desk, I kept one eye on the ticker. It was still at 113, but there were two people in front of me. My smile got wider as the ticker went to the 114. One person to go!

Suddenly the lady in front of me stepped out of line and for once, for once (!), I thought I was going to beat good ole' Murphy.

And that's when the clerk decided to change the register receipt paper.

The ticker went to 115 (my original number) and the clerk very methodically changed the paper. Just as he shut the lid, the clicker went to 116.

And I just smiled, knowing that Murphy had found me yet again!!!