Several months ago I signed up for a United States post office box.  My main reason in procuring the box was to use for blogging purposes.  Therefore I don't plan to use the box for much and don't anticipate receiving a lot of mail.   I decided to check the box at least once a month.

A few times when I was growing up we didn't have mail delivery to our home, but had to go to a post office.  I've never liked that idea.  I have loved getting mail ever since my first pen pal at the age of 10.  Jamie was my BFF in the fifth grade and she was one of the funniest people I've ever known.   She was always cracking  jokes and I can remember my face hurting from the constant laughing.   We moved a lot when I was growing up, and I tended to be somewhat of a loner and didn't have a lot of friends.  Halfway through the year her family moved to Oklahoma and I sorely missed her.  We did however, continue our friendship through the US Mail.  Stamps were barely 8 cents at the time.  Ah, but I digress.

Getting mail at a post office just isn't the same.  I've never liked the idea of having a post office box, mainly because it is one more responsibility.  And it's not as much fun!  And it's just one more expense.

Last week I had to stop at the post office to buy postage for a package – don't ask.  I tried on my home computer and at work, and was on the phone with USPS tech support for a solid hour trying to figure out why I can no longer print labels on either computer.  And this happened to be an International package, so it was already costing me a pretty penny and I really wanted that small savings I could earn by printing out my own label.  I was still feeling grumpy over the whole ordeal and the woman at the service desk didn't help matters since she was not even one bit sympathetic over the situation.  She probably resents that tiny savings we get by printing out our own labels.

After I finally got my package on its way, I made my way over to my post office box and inserted the key, expecting to see nothing.  Inside I found two pieces of junk mail which I tossed immediately into the recycle bin and a single piece of paper from the post office, alerting me to the fact that I can now get a text message when a piece of mail arrives in my box.

Now that made me happy.  If I can get a text message on my phone that tells me when I actually have mail, I don't have to go out of my way to make a special stop to check a postal box that usually contains nothing.

I don't know if all the post offices are doing this.  I couldn't find anything on the Internet about it.  Maybe it is just a test in my area.  But it is going to save me gas money and time because it is a few miles out of my normal commute.

Do you have a post office box?  Do you know if you have this option at yours? 

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