I'm not in Kansas anymore...

Yesterday is the last Saturday before Christmas, and I had a few gifts that I was hoping to get into the mail to arrive in time for the holiday. This was an especially fun challenge because my printer is nowhere near ready to be set up, so I couldn't print postage at home, and needed to find a post office. The good news was that there was a post office in my town that was open until 1pm. Plenty of time!

I got my gifts wrapped and packed and ready to go with half an hour to spare. As the post office was only twenty minutes away, that meant I could make it. I used the GPS on my phone and off I went. The drive was uneventful, until I was told I had reached my destination and saw this:

I was pretty sure that wasn't a post office, only I saw no signs of a post office anywhere in that little shopping area, or nearby areas. Confused and pressed for time, I tried looking across the street. I saw a white building up on a hill, with a full size American flag on a flag pole out front, and lots of cars in the parking lot. That's it, I thought! I head that way, and successfully maneuvered my car into a makeshift parking lot. I saw other people hurriedly heading inside.

I admit to being a little confused, because as I got closer to the front of the building, I didn't see any signage at all indicating this was a post office, or business of any kind. I still walked up to the front door, and before I could open it, a man and woman opened it from within and asked if they could help me. Suddenly, it was very clear that this was not a post office at all. I was about to walk into someone's home and private party.

I apologized for disturbing them and explained my confusion. Here's the kicker: rather than acting like I was some sort of crazy person, they couldn't have been nicer! They said that the post office is actually inside the Harvest Market store across the street, and jokingly invited me in for lunch. I again apologized, jumped in my car, and headed back to the market. 

When I walked inside, I was still confused, because I was clearly in a grocery store and not a post office. I asked the wine tasting lady if there might be a post office nearby. She pointed me to the customer service desk. 

That's the post office. I'm not kidding.

While waiting in the surprisingly short line, the lady in line in front of me struck up a conversation. We stood there having a nice chat about her love of sending new year's cards instead of Christmas cards and how she has family in Virginia down near where I'm from (except they're from western Virginia, which is nowhere near where I'm from, but I digress). She was as friendly as can be, and then it was my turn, and the customer service rep/post office guy was polite, efficient, and had me out of there in minutes. 

I'm still so confused. At home, I would be standing in line for probably half an hour at least just to get to the counter (and had brought my kindle with me in anticipation of this), and no one in line would have talked to me!

After my very pleasant pre-Christmas post office experience, I then went back to the wine tasting lady and enjoyed some samples of free wine. In the grocery store. Which, where I'm from, isn't a thing.