Through Rain, Snow, Hail and Customers Still In Their Pajamas

We live out in the country a bit and as many country folks, our driveway is a little longer than usual. Not terribly long, only about ½ mile long. It keeps us away from the traffic noise, is nice for taking walks and causes a lot more work for my husband in the winter. Our mailbox is of course, down at the main road. Because I don’t really like to shop, I fairly regularly purchase products online. Some are delivered by UPS and some come in the mail. My mom told me long ago that if I wanted to receive “happy mail” I would need to generate it myself. So, that is what I do…generate a little happiness for myself in the form of scrapbooking supplies, books of all kinds, and an occasional Philosophy product.

I have a very sweet mailman that, bless his heart, drives up our driveway to deliver my happiness. He isn’t required to do this. He could leave the little pink slip in my mailbox forcing me to get in my car and drive into town to pick up my package. But for some reason he is kind and has gone far above his duty for several years. Nothing so unusual about this except that he comes in the morning and inevitably I am still in my “casual wear” without makeup, my teeth not brushed and my hair sticking up. The worst part is that I am usually braless!! So I grab a coat or jacket and put on whatever shoes that are available and head out to his car. I have told him on several occasions that I do in fact get dressed and comb my hair daily but he always looks at me like, sure lady whatever you say!


So, the other day he is delivering a package and I am not only dressed in real clothing but because we are just about to leave I have not only makeup on but lipstick, shoes that match my outfit and, I am wearing a bra!! So I proudly head outside, no need for a jacket or a bag over my head and retrieve my package. I thank him as usual but as I turn around I suddenly have the need to announce that I am dressed. I turn around and yell, “WAIT, I’m dressed!” Which, momentarily seemed awkward, but he just smiled and said, very appropriately, “you look nice, you must be going somewhere?” Okay, I wasn’t eliciting a compliment I just really wanted him to know that I wasn’t some kind of lazy good for nothing housewife that sat around watching TV eating bon bon’s. I do other stuff too.

About a week later I look out the kitchen window and there he is with another happiness package and, crap, I’m not dressed. So, once again I throw on a jacket, put on a pair of shoes and head out to his car embarrassed but pretending like I don’t care. He takes one look at me and says, “back to normal huh?” I quietly say “yeah” and head back into the house to watch TV.