Five Dollars

I almost cried just now. I'm serious, but I'm glad I didn't. Went to the UPS store inside Fairmont hotel after rolling the trolley with that big package uphill and was told that dropping off any package inside a hotel cost $5. It wasn't only because I was taking into factor my cheap boss who would get pissed over the $5, but the fact that it was just plain unfair. Why should I, after rolling that heavy ass box uphill pay you snobby Chinese fatso sitting in your air-conditioned office $5 for doing nothing. He told me, "all UPS stores located inside hotels charge $5 for drop off because these UPS stores only serve hotel guests" and that the next closest UPS store is 4 blocks down on Mason and Sutter. Inside, lounging in the lobby are all these rich white people having their afternoon glass of wine. I rolled the trolley one block stood at the top of the steep hill on Mason and California and looked down. It was a steep decline. I would have to go downhill 4 blocks with the heavy box on the roller cart. I tested the weight of the box by taking three small steps. It was so heavy, I would have rolled downhill if I was stupid enough to take the UPS asshole's advice "It's good exercise for you." He had said it with an ironic smile.

To top it all off, some asshole in a nice expensive car was trying to get into the hotel and stopping for a pesdestrian with a heavy box and clumsy cart was just too much to ask of him. I was sweating and struggling with the cart and box and really I would have cried. But there, just one block away was a UPS truck. I managed to roll the cart downhill and got to the UPS truck just as the driver was starting the engine. I asked him, my voice already trembling from the frustration and the urge to cry if he would be so kind to let me drop off the box with him, when he nodded, I almost cried again.

Well, what is the moral of this story? Not much other than the fact that rich people live in an entire different world. Or maybe the same world but on a different plane. Just now, I had felt so poor, so indignant and for inexplicable reasons, so humiliated. It is ultimately a matter of $5. It is $5 I was asked to pay for a service no different than anywhere else, but it is $5 to pay for not being priviledged. I think, that was what sucked the most. It is $5 to pay for not being rich enough to live inside a Fancy hotel to use the service of a UPS store no different than any other. If it is not for the kindness of the UPS driver, I really would have started to cry. Sometimes, that is all that makes the world tolerable.