When Procrastination Pays Off.....

When procrastination pays off, it doesn't incite me to change.  Case in point - The Post Office.  On a normal day, our local busy suburban post office boasts a line of 7 or 8 people deep at any given time.  So on April 17th at 1PM,  when I was finally ready to mail my taxes, I allowed a good hour for the errand.  Everyone knows most people procrastinate when it comes to their taxes.  It's a job that no human being really enjoys doing.  I mean, who really wants to read through pages and pages of documents putting numbers into tiny squares?  And even if your accountant does it for you, who really enjoys giving their money to the government?  Things we enjoy, we do right away.  Things we don't enjoy, we procrastinate.

So imagine my surprise when I arrived at the Post Office on April 17th, camp chair in hand, only to find a mere ONE PERSON in line ahead of me!  Was I in the right place?  Had I somehow experienced time travel only to miss the deadline?  I asked the clerk behind the counter why he thought the Post Office was so empty and he explained to me that everyone had shown up the previous day.

I suddenly understood.  It was a rookie mistake.  I mean a common procrastinator might assume that taxes, which are normally due on the 15th, would be due on Monday the 16th when the 15th falls on a Sunday.  But thanks to Abraham Lincoln, Washington D.C. now celebrates Emancipation Day on April 16th.  It was April 16, 1862 that Abraham Lincoln, who was the president of the United States at the time, signed the Compensated Emancipation Act, which freed more than 3000 slaves in the District of Columbia.   This is the reason that if the 15th falls on a Sunday, we now have a generous TWO extra days to complete the task!  A professional procrastinator understands that.  And if it means shorter lines at the Post Office, it's a habit I probably won't be changing soon!