Should have known better!

Have you ever done something that you knew better? That is, something you shouldn't have done. Have you done it just to save a buck or two?
I have, unfortunately, and it had been bugging me ever since.

What did I do?
Well, recently I sent two rolls of black and white film out to be developed...(Okay, okay, let me explain - I have the skills to develop my own, but I don't keep the chemicals around the house now that I have a three year old. If my house was larger and I had the space for a dedicated darkroom, or I lived in a city where I could rent space, I would. But it doesn't work that way right now)... and I shipped it via the US postal service. My biggest mistake was not insuring the package, although I purchased tracking. My second mistake was using a local postal outlet instead of driving the 20 minutes into town to mail it.
The postal outlet near my house leaves the tracking slip on the package for the postman to date stamp and then returns it the next day or two. Mine never came back. And days, weeks, and now almost two months later the package is nowhere to be found. The postal outlet said they couldn't do anything and that I needed to contact to post office. The post office said without my tacking slip there is little they can do. They have given me a new number, a reference number, for my lost mail complaint. That's it.
UGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!

Are you wondering what was on the film that was so important?
Well two things. One was photos of a friend and her children for my motherhood series. I was hoping to give her some of the photos as a gift, to add some great shots to my series, and I hate that I don't know where the images of her and her children have gone.
The second roll contained photos of a building in Florida that I photographed in College. I can't find the negatives anymore, but it is one of my favorite prints from that time. I was kind of hoping to recreate it and sell it. I hand colored the only print I can find and I just love it.
Kind of ironic that I lost the original negatives and now loss the replacement film I took.
I did shoot some color slides in Florida and those came out great and didn't get lost in the mail. I took a few shots of the building using color, but used mostly black and white (the rolls that are lost.)
Here is one of the color shots. The whole building is large and this is just one entrance. Oh how I wish I had just paid for insurance and gone into the real post office in town. Could have still be lost, but the chances would have been much less likely.
Next time.