May the Daily editors not smite me for this cliched topic

When I was in college, the post office on campus was so widely acknowledged to be craptastic that the campus paper had an official, on-the-books rule that no one was allowed to write any more stories about craptastic qualities of the post office because to do so would risk compromising the paper’s status as a “purveyor of news.”

I’m breaking the rule. I figure this is okay because I am no longer writing for the campus paper. But I still feel a little guilty about it, so this will be short.

Did everyone else know about the postage increase that happened today? Because I am just now hearing about it. Specifically, I’m wondering why it did not occur to the woman working AT THE POST OFFICE from whom I purchased approximately 732 thirty-seven cent stamps EIGHT DAYS AGO to tell me “sugar, you know we’re switching to thirty-nine cents in a week, right?” I would have been more than willing to buy the 732 stamps in the correct denomination had I known, but now I’m stuck with all these wrongly- valued stamps and a serious need for two centers. Which I assume are going to be ugly.

Also, I only just learned of the existence of these, which I think are the most lovely stamps ever, and now I can’t use them because they’re the wrong value. (Before you suggest that I just add the two cent ones, (a) Greta, icon that she is, does not deserve an ugly robin stamp crowding her, and (b) I am a firm believer in brevity in written correspondence, so all of my envelopes are smaller than an index card, making it difficult to smoosh two stamps on there.)

Finally, the post office lost not one, not two, but three of the Christmas parcels I sent out priority mail. This leaves me to wonder whether I have to buy new gifts for these people or whether “it’s the thought that counts” extends to “I thought enough of you to spend a carefully calculated amount of money on you once, but to spend the same amount again would effectively double the amount I’ve spent on you, which would destroy both my budget and my carefully constructed allotment of gift-buying resources, so I’m going to pass.” Coments welcome on whether I should buy new gifts, tell the unlucky recipients my sad story and apologize for the lack of gift, or do nothing and risk having the recipients think I've forgotten/slighted/insulted them, because I sure as heck can't figure out what to do.