My Traditional Holiday

The family I have is a little different then some people. I live a few thousand miles away from my immediate family, they live in beautiful Ohio. While being here on the west coast, I have been blessed with the best people in my everyday life. Most of my friends have partners and are not married. We all see each other every week, whether it is just a hey what's going on or to have dinner. Every year we go on at least one camp trip, one road trip, and have a bunch of get together's to either BBQ or play board games. Though we are not the typical family, we have started a lot of traditions. Every year I have a big Halloween party. All of our friends look forward to it. I start decorating my house in September and even have to take a week off in October for this big event. I always have scary people jumping out of the woods coming up my driveway, and strobe lights in every window. I even play scary music and have fog machines. This is a big tradition in my household. No matter how hard I try to spread things out inside the house everyone ends up flocking in the kitchen. I have an open floor plan and a counter full of food and a bat brew in my cauldron. And if anything is left over, it gets put into Ziploc bags and taken home by my friends. I think the favorite thing people look forward to eating is my all hallow eve's dip, which is just spinach dip with a little bite, served in a pumpkin cut into a bowl. It is my favorite holiday and has become a tradition for years to come.

The U.S. Post Office is a community of many communities. As a city carrier, we are dressed in the same uniform, start our morning the same, by checking our vehicles and then going to our cases, and then we end our day the same. We all share the same motive, do the job and go home. I think our group is held together by the importance of the mail. People are happier when they see the mail person coming down the road (unless you have late bill notices). As a group we have many different values. Some value the extra money them make by staying late to help, some feel the need to make everyone around them know what is going on in the political world, and some are just interested in everyone else's happenings but their own. We sometimes share ideas on the best clothing to by to stay dry and warm in the winter and in the summer how to stay cool and avoid sunburns or the farmer's tan look. I think that the two hardest things working against this community is the upper management, who are the decision makers, and our union. Our upper management makes it hard for us to do our job, by changing our tasks on a weekly basis. I understand that it could save us money, however if we do not get to adjust to it, it only slows us down in the long run. Our union makes it hard because they always want us to be against everything the Post Master is trying to accomplish and sometimes refuses to keep an open mind.

I believe I fit into this community because I value the other carriers. Some are veteran's, mostly Navy. Sometimes it's difficult to be around the same people everyday, but we all do our best not to step on each other's toes. Though it is hard, we come together for a BBQ in the summer and have Christmas dinner(lunch) as well. It is the best place to be introduced to different cultures. A few of the people here are Indian, and they cook a special meal to celebrate the Indian new year. I think the carriers at my post office welcome everyone that comes through the door to work here, no matter what they think or say.
Becky

What's in my wallet?

By viewing the items in my wallet separately, anyone could draw a conclusion that I am or was in the military, maybe Navy. I have been attending EVCC for three quarters. I bank with a military credit union. I have health and AAA insurance in case of emergencies. I have a Safeway Club card. My Driver's License tells, I live in Washington, I am an organ donor, my birthdate, address, height and weight, and the color of my hair and eyes.
Someone could make the assumption that I am not concerned with carrying a lot of items, maybe I don't have many credit cards, I don't carry cash, maybe I am frugal. I may support the military and work for the government.
I think if people only had the items in my wallet they would miss a great deal about me as an individual. For instance, I am very relaxed and funny, I usually take things for what they are, unless I find them interesting and want to know more. I am an outdoors lover. I do support the military and America, and I am a veteran. What they would never guess though I am a conservative, I am gay and don't support the pro-gay agenda.

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