I’ve never had a checker like I did today at the P&C grocery store. She seemed to be in a hypomanic or even manic state as she whizzed items across the scanner with one hand while filling a bag with the other. She worked on two bags at once and as soon as they were filled, she zipped around to put them in my shopping cart, then rushed back to start the next batch.
I wondered later if she had been as accurate as she had been fast, and if I should check the receipt. But I had the sense that she knew what she was doing and was simply super-efficient.
I like to do things fast, too, but I often have to pay for my speed. I had a painting to ship today and decided that since I hate packing and I’m so lousy at it, I’d take the box and painting to Pak-mail, the UPS store that usually handles it for me.
I quickly put the painting and box in the car, along with the envelope with the packing slip, label and certificate of authenticity that needed to be packed with the painting.
When I got to Pak-Mail, I was sorry to see that it was closed for the day.
“Oh no,” I thought. “Now I will have to pack this painting myself after all.”
When I got home, I found some stiff foam insulation I could use to protect the painting, but it would have to be cut down to size. First I put the box together—forcing it in my no-patience-for-this manner and sealing the bottom closed.
But wait. This box was 26” x 20”. My painting was 24” x 24”. I was supposed to be using a 28” x 28” box. Turns out I had the boxes labeled wrong!
If I had not been so fast, I might have noticed that the painting could not possibly fit in the smaller box.
So it would have been a wasted trip to Pak-Mail anyway since I’d brought the wrong box.
That was little consolation.
I tossed the wrong-sized box aside and began to assemble the correct one—once again forcing it to comply. When it didn’t come together squarely, I just used more tape on it to keep it closed.
Then I started cutting the foam insulation—measuring quickly and inaccurately, cutting without checking, re-cutting, and so forth. When I had it almost done, I slid the envelop with the packing slip inside.
Only after I’d finished filling in all the foam did I realize I’d also left the packing label in that envelope—the label which needed to go on the outside of the box so that UPS would pick it up.
I managed to get the shipping label out of the box without damaging anything and then filled in all the spaces with foam. The table I’d been working on was a mess of little plastic pebbles from the foam as well as the leftover wrong-sized pieces and scraps.
I quickly sealed up the top of the box, attached the shipping label, and set it out for UPS to pick up later today.
Only then did I notice the similarity between the grocery store checker and me. We were both doing our manic dance with speed and fury.
A duet of sorts.
