Procrastination Made a Fool Outa Me

My printer broke last week and so I had to bring handwritten pages to my tax appointment. The printer was crappy, even as new. All I wanted was an inkjet printer, and at the time, the all in one phone, fax, scanner, whatever was in vogue. This printer was probably 10 years old and limped along and if I worked it gingerly and only tried to print one sheet, let in settle, go to the next page, let it settle, it would work. I never replaced it as I print out so little. But it gave up the ghost.

So now with E-filing, I got my tax return via email along with a bunch of stuff, like my estimated tax forms, my invoice, etc. that has to be printed out. I also have to sign the permission form or whatever for E-filing. I could have let that slip a bit until I returned, but I also had to print out a "media credentials" authorization form so I could park at this air show in a better place.

Ok, I turned going to Staples to get this printed into an event that would take hours. I hate my local Staples -- so much so that I looked into local Kinko's and the reviews of two locations near me were so horrible -- all caps DO NOT GO HERE. TRUST ME. Those kind of reviews. When you call and ask a question, one person wrote, you're put on hold only to have another person pick up the phone as if you are calling for the first time and then the pattern repeats itself. I took their word for it.

So I dragged my feet and came up with every possible excuse not to go -- including (I add embarassingly) that I could just show the parking lot guy the authorization letter on my computer. Yes, I was that desperate to not go to Staples.

I put on my big girl panties and put one foot in front of the other. As I was going in the door at Staples, there was a sign that said "We repair computers" and it made me grateful that my computer didn't need fixing. When I got to the copy center, there was one person who was being helped, one person in front of me, and me. The young woman finished with the first guy, asked me what I wanted, told me "Go stand over there with your flash drive" and went to help the other guy. I had to laugh. I do not mind being bossed around like that for the sake of efficiency. Within another minute, she was there and printing. One of the files is 72 pages long and I could not believe how fast that printed. My girl Jewel is a jewel. Fast, pleasant, efficient. So unlike my usual experience at Staples. In all, the bill was $11 which was well worth it.

Elapsed time was under five minutes and I had to laugh at myself and another case of wishing I could take back all that energy I expended procrastinating. I did send a Twitter out about Jewel including @Staples so they'd see it so maybe she'll get a gold star in her permanent file or something. She was terrific.