It’s hard to convey tone through text, but keep in mind both of these guys were light hearted in this conversation:
Guy: I need some stamps, what kind do you have?
Employee: Well, we have the bells, the holiday ones, and then the godless ones.
Guy: Godless ones?
Employee: Yep! *shows him some holiday stamps with pine cones and other nature-y things on them*
Guy: I guess I’ll take two of the godless-
Employee: Two heathen stamps!
Guy: -and two of the overly religious ones.
Employee: Shhh, we’re not allowed to say that.
I giggled. Definitely a “No Jen, you’re not in Indiana anymore” moment.
That and the fact that a young woman wearing a cross necklace happily helped me stuff 21 copies of The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas into envelopes as I was frantically trying to get in before closing. Hooray for Seattle.
35 comments
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Happy Rabbit
December 18, 2010 at 2:47 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Makes me so jealous! So wish I was young enough and healthy enough to relocate. To paraphrase “Field of Dreams”, Sea-couver must be heaven.
Michael Witham
December 18, 2010 at 2:48 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I’m so tired of NWI.
Dagfin
December 18, 2010 at 2:58 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
huh?
Richard Girvan
December 18, 2010 at 3:02 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Isn’t it kind of cheating if you get everyone a copy of the same book, and it happens to be a book that you’re published in?
Jadehawk
December 18, 2010 at 3:07 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
NW Indiana, maybe?
Jadehawk
December 18, 2010 at 3:07 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
A wonderfully irreverent place, ain’t it. I miss it.
breadbox
December 18, 2010 at 3:41 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Does that make up for the weather then?
Dagfin
December 18, 2010 at 4:05 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Oh…makes sense, thx.
Dagfin
December 18, 2010 at 4:06 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
for some it does. i had to leave after 20 years because of the weather/climate/darkness.
Jen
December 18, 2010 at 4:12 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It was people who donated a certain about to my TAM fund and I promised would get the books, not family members or something.
Jen
December 18, 2010 at 4:13 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The weather in Seattle is freaking beautiful compared to the midwest.
Michael Witham
December 18, 2010 at 4:16 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You got it.
Teh Guest
December 18, 2010 at 4:37 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I LOLed. We need more truth in retail.
Egoistpaul
December 18, 2010 at 4:41 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Nice. Maybe you can consider designing atheist stamps. Stamps can be an effective marketing vehicle for atheism.
Charon
December 18, 2010 at 4:45 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Welcome to Seattle :) On the other hand, I once asked for some Thurgood Marshall stamps at the U-District post office, and was told that they were out, but they had some stamps with a different black guy on them. Because clearly the only relevant thing about Thurgood Marshall is that he was black…
Jacques
December 18, 2010 at 5:39 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I grew up in Chicago. Now live near San Francisco. Could definitely live in Seattle. Except Seattle’s Italian food isn’t quite up to snuff, and they haven’t quite enough burrito places. So, my plan is to retire to Seattle, and open Wong’s Taco Palace. Old family recipes. (okay, not my families recipes, but they must have come from someone’s family, right? ) Plus, my father’s vegetarian egg rolls, and if you want Chinese fried rice instead of Mexican rice on the side, no prob.
Guest
December 18, 2010 at 6:29 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
ah, the northwest, i miss it so much! but yes, there are really great people there!
Jeric_synergy
December 18, 2010 at 7:45 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
(native) Yes, we rock.
kjell fostervold
December 18, 2010 at 1:19 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Whaaaaaaaaaat?! Come on, you don’t like giant blizzards? Or tornadoes? Or the 2 seasons – road construction and winter?In all seriousness, as a Minnesotan, I’m not sure I’d be able to handle living somewhere without blizzards and long, frozen winters. Makes a person appreciate summer more.
Svlad Cjelli
December 18, 2010 at 2:53 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“Heathen” is a great word. It’s always funny.
Dchmcelroy
December 18, 2010 at 4:11 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
So happy you got out of midwest hell. I am anxiously awaiting the day i leave the bible belt. Imagine teaching biology– including dreaded evolution– in Knoxville Tennessee, national capitol of Southern Baptists! <shudder> Students sometimes tell me I am going to hell and I think to myself, “no, I am already there”. </shudder>
Lissa
December 18, 2010 at 4:26 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I have no problems wearing my golden cross earrings, despite being an atheist. I’d prefer Church of the Invisible Pink Unicorn ones, but then it just looks like I’m not wearing earrings.
J. Mark
December 18, 2010 at 4:32 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Kinda makes me wanna move north….
Katherine
December 18, 2010 at 5:47 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Damn straight, coming from a Vermonter. The cold is how you separate the men from the boys! Figuratively speaking, of course.
Charon
December 18, 2010 at 6:35 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Oh, after unrelenting months of just gray, and perhaps a month straight of rain every day, Seattleites appreciate summer just fine. And if they want cold, they can just go up into the mountains. Trust me, a blustery winter day on the top of Rainier, Baker, Hood – that’s as cold as any day in Minnesota.
VollyfromtheBlog
December 18, 2010 at 7:38 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
If this were Facebook, I’d have hit the “like” button by now.:)
jen
December 18, 2010 at 8:30 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
yes… i noticed the nice pine “forever” stamps and stuck them on the envelopes of my more godless friends.
chicagodyke
December 18, 2010 at 8:43 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
the regionalism of reason really bothers me, truth be told. and it’s not really the “red state/blue state” dichotomy that a lot of pundits posit; every state has pockets of one or the other and people self-segregate accordingly. i’m living in a “purple” zone right now; the middle and upper class people here are mostly liberal and reasoned, the poor people not so much. i’m reminded of this when i go shopping. i do some of my shopping at the (very expensive) organic food stores and buy my non-food items at the local big box. the difference between the types of people who shop there is obvious and striking. the right wing theocrats in this country have created many almost entirely separate communities for themselves. i don’t have to tell you, Jen, you’re from IN. “church” megaplexes where they can shop, buy books, get a babysitter, send their kids to school, socialize with one like minded people… small businesses that have a “down low” understanding to only hire people with the ‘right’ beliefs. Patrick Henry and Liberty University, which place a disturbing number of graduates into choice staffer positions in the halls of Congress. clubs and sports teams that require a certain belief. cabals of judges and investors and politicians who literally live together, as they function in their capacity to “serve the public” but only part of the public. if liberals want to survive in this country, we’ll recognize this problem, and go into those communities, and confront the monolithic culture there, reminding me that america is and always has been a pluarlistic society. it’s really nice to live in a “liberal mecca” but in the end it’s unhealthy for democracy.
chicagodyke
December 18, 2010 at 8:45 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
meh, disqus won’t let me edit anymore, sorry for the typos.
Jadehawk
December 18, 2010 at 10:43 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I have my severe doubts about the slopes of those mountains getting to -25F :-p
cr0sh
December 19, 2010 at 3:03 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Heh – didn’t know those stamps were “godless”; I just bought a bunch at the post office today mailing out some cards (and the rest for regular letters). Funny.
LadyAtheist
December 19, 2010 at 6:59 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
What would they look like? Blank? :-p
Lithifird Detritus
December 20, 2010 at 12:19 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
You are fighting the good fight, and you are making a difference, although it may not seem like it. We need people like you…
Richard Girvan
December 22, 2010 at 1:45 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I suppose I can let you away with that.
BruceW
December 24, 2010 at 12:55 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Jen, received the book this afternoon. Thanks…now if I can just get it away from my wife.