The Best Intentions

Remember back when I said that I was going to get all my paperwork done over Spring Break? Well, as it turns out, I fibbed. I finished up all my paperwork, which was due Monday at noon, over the weekend. Ever try to find an open postal/shipping place on a Sunday afternoon? I don’t advise it. I had forgotten to pick up a prepaid express envelope for the Italian Consulate in Houston to use to send back my visa materials….

But wait: there’s more! (I feel like a used car salesman right now, but it had to happen, I guess.) Not only did I forget about the envelope until the last minute, but I also forgot my $300 housing deposit. I got to call my daddy and ask him to donate the money and a trip to Fayetteville (from Rogers, during his workday) to deliver it to the Office of Study Abroad. Luckily, my dad is awesome and came to campus and even took me out to lunch.

Anyway, that envelope I was supposed to have? I picked up a five dollar prepaid priority mail envelope at the post office in the student union before my Latin class Monday morning. I thought, “Hey! That is the same kind of envelope that the Department of State used to send me my passport in the first place. Sure, it’s cheap, but if it’s good enough for the State Department, it’s good enough for the Italian Consulate, right?” Wrong. It was the wrong one. I had to go to another post office off campus and buy the spendy Express Mail envelope, the one that says, “Urgent! Rush to addressee,” or something like that. And the gal at Study Abroad, who, admittedly, was rather busy at the time, waited until after I’d addressed the cheap, wrong envelope to tell me that it was the wrong one…. On the bright side, I am now the proud owner of a five dollar USPS cardboard folder with a stamp featuring a California bridge that is probably not built up to modern earthquake-resistance standards. It’s even got my address on it, so if I should lose it, whoever finds it can mail it to me in Minnesota.

Ah, well. Bad day, but it can only get better from here, right?