First Submission Request, Panic Attacks, And Fate

I am totally, completely, utterly ecstatic. I feel like I've won a billion dollars, been proposed to by the love of my life and was granted a lifetime supply of weight-reducing Milka chocolates - all on the same day.

An agent has asked for a partial submission! *squeeeeeeee*

Friday night, I got an email answer to one of my queries (the one from before the first person POV version), asking for a snail mail with my material. I walked on air the whole weekend, while frantically (finally) perfecting the requested three-page synopsis and formatting my first three chapters according to AgentQuery's formatting tips.

On Monday after work, I printed out the pages and floated to the post office to get one honking large envelope that would also hold a smaller, yet still big enough for my material to be sent back in, SASE. I also asked for American stamps to put on aforementioned SASE.

And my floating feet grew cold and reconnected with the ground in a resounding thump.

Doh. American stamps aren't to be had at a German post office. The nice clerk behind the counter informed me they can only offer some sort of online-system, which sounded extremely complicated and a lot of work for the recipient, i.e. the agent I want to make it as easy for as possible. So I need simple stamps, not some fancy rigamaroo that confuses the heck out of users and will frustrate Ms Agent, making her turn the unread pages into Christmas confetti - if she even gets and/or accepts them.

I went home, got behind the computer and did some research. Turns out even finding somewhere online to send foreign stamps to you at a decent price is, well, impossible. AgentQuery suggests http://www.usps.com/, which was the only source that looked reputabel, capable and fairly cheap - but they don't send things internationally anymore (I'll email AgentQuery about that). I'm no slouch when it comes to using the computer and online stuff, but the UPS page boldly showed me my limits in that area. When I finally closed that site I wasn't even sure which way was up or down. I tried calling a UPS subsidiary in the area, but of course by then it was rather late, and they weren't open anymore.

So there I was, ready to hyperventilate, when another doh-worthy thought hit me. On Sunday, this coming Sunday, the in-five-days Sunday, I'm meeting relatives of mine, who are - and this affirms again my strong belief in fate and that we are in the right places at the right times if we let God guide us - Americans, coming to Europe for the holidays.

I immediately shot them a desperate email, begging them to bring a legion of stamps for me (more than I need now, just in case/hopefully I find myself in the same situation again in the near future). Being the wonderful people they are, they answered in the affirmative a few hours later.

Returning me to my blissful state of gravity-defiance.

Merry Christmas to me!!