The title is meant to be a play on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but they really have nothing to do with each other…
Anyway.
This wonderful pack of zine goodness came into my life, but not so plainly as to be simply put into my post box. Take a look at the picture, and you might see why…
So about that funny thing that happened:
I wasn’t going to go to the post office, but it was already entirely possible I was sending a package too late for it to reach my friend, Wolf, in time for her birthday. (Procrastination wins again. Sigh.) I briefly thought about sending Wanderer in to send it off, but I got off my lazy backside and did it myself.
I was lucky enough to get in on a quiet time, so I walked right up to the counter. The guy greeted me warmly, as pretty much everyone there knows me now (for sending a lot of stuff overseas). He double-checked all the customs forms, asked if I wanted tracking…
When I’d walked in, I’d been absolutely set on not getting tracking for penny-pinching reasons as well as not being impressed with the service in the past. Yet, when presented with all the options, I decided to get it anyway. The options were to get tracking updates sent to my phone or my email. I made a face and said that email would be just fine.
He asked me for my email address, to which I began to reply, “The Author-”
His head shot up faster than a meerkat coming to attention. “You’re The Author?”
I blinked a little and slowly said, “Yes…”
Without another word, he literally (and yes, I know how to use that word properly) ran out to the mail room. I looked around, a million possibilities running through my head. Not any that made sense, though. I mean, I was an author, but I didn’t think they knew that. Besides, what bearing could that possibly –
He rushed back in and handed me a thick envelope with all the eagerness and glee of a child handing over an art project. “You’re The Author!”
It only took me a moment to realise that the envelope had arrived, but they hadn’t known which post box to put it in because there wasn’t one. Oops!
Oh, he was absolutely thrilled. He talked and talked about how it’d come in, how they hadn’t wanted to send it back straight away because you never know and it’d already come so far, how they had very nearly put it in the Bendigo Writer’s Club post box on the off chance it was for one of them. He was absolutely thrilled, and I couldn’t help but laugh right along with him.
“What are the chances?” I asked, chuckling as I looked at the envelope. “Not just that I’d come in but that you’d end up needing my email address.”
“I know!” He was so, so excited. He even said that those things just didn’t happen every day and how he’d have to go get a lotto ticket. Then he became even more excited about the woman who was on lunch break because he would be the one who got to tell her that they’d finally found The Author.
What a day.
I can’t stop smiling when I think about it. Here’s to things reaching their destination no matter what.
PS. This is absolutely by no means taking a shot of Jess Freedom, who sent this envelope of awesomeness.
