good people.

i am one of those people that chooses to believe that most people are inherently good. i acknowledge that every person may have the occasional proclivity to make bad choices, but on the whole, i firmly believe the best of people out there...whether i know them personally or not.

my boyfriend does not share this same ideal; he actually believes the opposite. to him, until you prove yourself to be a good person, he is probably going to regard you with a certain level of skepticism and doubt. until you have given him no reason to doubt your intentions, he is probably going to assume you have ulterior motives.

certainly it is easy to see how two such differing ideologies could cause some friction; they certainly have in our past as a couple. and what i have always believed is that he is completely irrational and close-minded in his assumptions. 

well, that was until today.

and to clarify- there have been a few situations in the past where things have happened without a provided explanation that we have both chalked up to reasons that support our own belief system. and on those points, we have agreed to disagree.

but today, i guess, i gained a better understanding and insight into his thought process. or at least why he is as skeptical as he is.

case in point-- a few weeks ago i received a promotional email from urban outfitters touting incredible sales and free shipping. well, as a a devoted fan of online shopping and urban outfitters, i perused the sale items and before i knew it, had amassed a shopping cart of about $110 worth of merchandise i promptly purchased and earmarked to be shipped within three days.

i received email confirmation of the purchase and two days later, a subsequent email alerting me the purchase had been shipped. that was on september 17.

so, essentially, every day since about the 20th, i have been rushing home and going straight to the front door to retrieve my package. and everyday, i have been left wanting.

so, today, as i was leaving work, i logged into my urban outfitters account to check the status of my shipment. the website told me it was shipped on the 17th and accepted via UPS on the 20th...to the address i had in denton while i was in graduate school.

this was obviously a mistake. when i logged into urban outfitters the day i made the purchase, that old address was still on file and i promptly updated it to my new address before i ever been to finalize my purchase. however, it was clear that a glitch had occurred somewhere in the process and my purchases had been delivered to the wrong address.

so, i called customer service. and after speaking with the representative who answered the phone and eventually, her supervisor, i was told that when the package was delivered, it was accepted and signed for by "Lindsey Coyne" at the address in question, and as a result, could not be resent or refunded because for urban outfitters purposes, the merchandise had been successfully delivered.

so essentially: the $110 worth of merchandise i paid for was "successfully" delivered and accepted by the new residents of my old duplex in denton. they received the shipment 11 days ago and FRAUDULENTLY signed MY NAME and ACCEPTED a package on my behalf and have not sent in on to its rightful owner. i mean, i could try to convince myself they are looking for a way to send it back to me, but the UPS driver that delivered the package gave them the option to refuse the package if it was wrongly delivered and they chose not to do so. so, essentially, the residents of 1409 paco trail in denton are the new, proud owners of $110 worth of urban outfitters merchandise.

and i guess what i am getting at that is relevant to my original assertion about the nature of people is that, perhaps, i am completely wrong. maybe people out there are minimally interested in doing the right thing and only care about what services their own interests.

what i wish these people knew- because for some reason i think it would make a difference- is that they are stealing from a teacher who makes limited money who took advantage of an opportunity to purchase some things that could be worn to WORK from an establishment who accidentally fucked up the shipping information. could these people possibly understand that stealing $110 out of my pocket IS a big deal and that unless i find a way to rescue my purchase, it will be significantly painful for me at the end of the month when my bank account balance is dwindling and $110 could go along way to help with gas and groceries. how could a stranger not look at a seemingly "free" delivery of clothing and not KNOW that someone spent good money for it and will certainly be missing it when it never hits their doorstep?

all i know is, if i had answered the door that day, all of those things would have crossed my mind. and i would have refused the package so it WOULD make its way to the rightful owner.

 but i guess what i learned is that most people-- or at least these specific individuals- are not me.

because even if i begin to suspect the worst of others, i will never stop expecting the best of myself...