Ever feel

like you hit 

the

JACKPOT?!

Little things mean a lot when you're far away from your favorite place of comfort and convenience. I've been anticipating the arrival of my first care packages almost as much as I have my furnishings!  I learned yesterday that my furnishings are still enjoying a vacation in Seattle, so I was that much more excited to learn that the packages my Mom and Dad sent were expected to arrive today.

THE POST OFFICE

Whatever one's physical address, mail and packages for Bethel residents go to a Post Office box.  I learned, when I applied for my own, that there are simple protocols for mailing packages to a PO Box. A majority of shipping services will mail out to PO boxes just as they would to other addresses. Occasionally, you run into a service that won't, but you can get around that by providing your physical address and tacking the PO Box number onto it somewhere. For instance:

My mailing address is:

PO Box 281

Bethel, AK 99559

If a vendor won't ship to a PO Box, I would use:

172 East Avenue

Bethel, AK 99559-0281

(See my box # on the end there?)

Any package small enough is stuffed directly into your box. If you get a larger package, a code number goes a slip of yellow card stock, which is added to your box. This 'yellow slip' is redeemed at the counter to collect your prize.  If the line is particularly long, one of the postal workers will bark out "yellow slips!" and all the lucky yellow slip holders turn in their slips and wait for the mass delivery.  

Yesterday I learned (from a co-worker) that some fortunate patrons have a yellow slip marked "BACK DOOR".  This indicates that your package is SO BIG that it must be fetched at the loading dock on the back side of the post office. Nice!

Today I learned that there is yet one more way to collect a package:

MY TRIP TO THE POST OFFICE

 Until my bicycle arrives with my furnishings, my options for running errands are:

1. Take a taxi: fast and easy, but $5 each way to anywhere in Bethel except the airport, which is $7.

2. Bum a ride from a friend: most of my friends don't have cars either. I might have to work on making more friends. ;-)

3. Walk: nothing is really very far away in Bethel.

So I put on my largest backpack (a hiking style job I'd picked up when I broke my foot in 2010) and trekked the 2.5 miles up to the Post Office. The weather being 70 and mostly sunny, this was no real hardship! On the way I checked out the Saturday Market, which was very interesting and deserves a post of its own.  When I reached the Post Office and opened my PO Box, I was surprised to find only a key attached to a good-sized keychain. Puzzled, I studied the keychain and found that it read, "Parcel Locker 69."  Intrigued, I stomped all over the premises until I found mailboxes larger than the standard ones. I located #69 and inserted the key to reveal.......my boxes. I was not disappointed! The boxes, though small, were quite heavy. So heavy, in fact, that though I managed to cram them into my backpack, I could barely balance them on my back! So a hijacked a passing taxi and returned home with my plunder. Dex and Jimmy "helped" me open them and were excited to learn that they, at least would have furniture...

In case you were curious, the inventory of my loot includes: 

Milky Way/Twix/Snickers miniatures

A huge bag of M&M's

Muffin mix (i use it to make pancakes...)

Crystal Light lemonade

International delight creamer singles

Oatmeal

A 2.5 lb bag of DD coffee.

Granola bars and trail mix (great for travel days!)

Grape Nuts (i can't eat it cold but I lOVE it hot!)

Peanut Butter & Jellies

Cat treats and soft food packets

Ramen noodles

Hand sanitizer wipes

My parents ROCK!

:-)