To the Editor:

Ever have one of those times when it seems like everything is trying to keep you from doing what you need to do? Well, I had one on the Thursday before the 4th of July weekend.

I was trying to complete an out of town business transaction. A lawyer emailed me a form to sign and return to him by noon the next day, and included a prepaid FedEx label. This shouldn’t be a problem because it’s around ten o’clock right now. What I’m accustomed to is if you get it to FedEx by noon, they guarantee delivery by noon the next day.

I get a nice lady in the Registrar’s Office to notarize it after I sign. Then, the administrative associate in my office (we’ll call her the main lady) has a FedEx envelope which she gives me. I get it all packaged and sealed with the prepaid label in place, and ask where a FedEx office is. She says they usually do a daily pick-up here on campus, and she’ll take it to the mailroom for me.

A little while after main lady returns from the mailroom, they call and say the FedEx truck doesn’t pick-up during the summer. Okay, she retrieves the package and says she’ll locate a FedEx office for me. It turns out there isn’t one in Ahoskie. Well, we’ll just have to go with a FedEx drop box.

After some extensive checking, main lady says the closest one is at the Shaw CAPE Center right on highway 42. (Now, I didn’t tell her I didn’t know what this was; I looked it up later – Shaw University Center for Alternative Programs of Education) Where is it and how do I get to it? She says just go toward town, make a right on highway 42/Academy St. and go….. uh-oh, the bridge is out; you have to go to it from the other direction.

Now, I’m not great at following directions and the bridge being out has led to a more complicated set. Main lady says take a right out of the parking lot, make a left at the stop sign, and then at the third one make a left. This will be the other end of highway 42, on the other side of the bridge. I think I got it, and by now it’s after eleven o’clock.

Before I get to the third stop sign, I see a sign saying highway 42 this way. Could main lady have been mistaken? But, the sign wouldn’t lie. I follow the sign and turn – definite mistake! I go for several miles, don’t see highway 42, and decide to turn and go in the direction she told me to begin with. I go several more miles and it’s close to twelve o’clock by now. Finally, I come up on another sign that points to 42. This one may be lying too, but I follow it.

I get to 42, make a left and look for a sign for the Center. Don’t see one, wait there’s a FedEx box in front of that building on the left. The FedEx box says the pick-up time is three o’clock. Okay, I’m in time, but will it get there by noon tomorrow.

The next day (and I followed the reverse of main lady’s directions going back), I call the lawyer and he says he has it, and in time. Thus, this saga has a happy ending. I sure hope they get that bridge fixed soon.

W. Eric Thomas
Interim President
R-C Community College