divine angst

Let me tell you all the ways FedEx sucks.

FedEx Ground did not make my delivery today. My package was on a truck early this morning. But no one dropped a package off to the office during the day and no one came to our door this evening. There was no door tag showing an attempted delivery. Yet, when I called FedEx, I was told, by a very nice young lady, that a delivery attempt had been made and my package was going back to the distribution center.

Hm. I think he just skipped me. What do you think?

So I asked if I could just have the package held at the center so I could pick it up tomorrow.

Um, no. FedEx Ground is, get this, “required” to make three delivery attempts before they can hold the package for pickup. So I asked if I could have it delayed until Saturday, when I know one of us can be home all day.

She said, “I can put in a request for that, but I can’t guarantee it.”

Um, OK.

So the best I could do was put in a request to have it delivered tomorrow before 7pm. If it gets here during the day, the office can sign for it; if it gets here before our Aikido class, I’ll be here to take it.

I hope.

I hate HATE HATE FedEx right now. I want to write a nice, nasty letter to whoever is in charge of drivers here in My Fair City and tell them that their driver in charge of my neighborhood is an asshole and took off early to get a drink, rather than deliver my package, my package which has a pricey piece of electronic equipment tucked inside.

(For the record, Mr. Angst was here while I was at choir rehearsal and had to run down the street to drop some stuff off at the storage unit, and while he was on the way, he saw a FedEx Ground truck going in the opposite direction of our apartment. Just so you know this isn’t just the anger talking. But the anger, the anger is there.)

Question:

Why does FedEx bother to have online tracking when it’s not real-time?

I can see that my new computer was put on the truck for delivery this morning at 6:45 am. It is ENTIRELY possible that it has already been delivered to my apartment complex. But because the tracking system will not update until the driver gets back to FedEx, I won’t KNOW it’s been delivered until it’s too late. I. e., until the office at my apartment complex is CLOSED. (And I don’t get off work until AFTER the office is closed. Argh.)

Of course the apartment people are also at lunch right now, so I can’t get a hold of anyone to tell me if it’s already been delivered or even when FedEx usually comes by. Argh again.

I took my first Aikido class last night.

Mr. Angst has been taking Aikido for the last month, and he’s practiced martial arts in the past. We thought this might be a way for us to spend time together. I was hesitant; any time I’ve ever taken a movement class that involved working with partners (dance classes, for instance), I’ve never felt very comfortable or that the teachers were doing much to help me in particular. (I’m thinking particularly of the last dance class I took, a lindy class, where the teachers were much more interested in demonstrating with each other only, and rarely with a student. Because I knew more than some people in the class, I ended up having to dance with the men who didn’t know anything, and I never got better.)

So anyway, I was nervous. Martial arts? Me? I’m a yoga kind of girl. And any form of movement that requires partners? I am definitely better alone—that way I can’t hurt anyone and I can progress at my own pace.

But I really enjoyed the class. I guess we are lucky—there are several senior students who are attending this class and helping out, so I’m not just working with other new students. And the atmosphere is very relaxed, not at all Karate-Kid-scary-dojo stuff (yes, I know that’s karate and not aikido, but there’s a whole competitive-martial-arts mindset that makes me nervous).

Best of all, I think I can actually be good at this. That was my final reservation about aikido—would I succeed? Could I succeed? (I am not known for my gracefulness, let me just say that.) But I think I can, and I am excited to try.