US Post Office

So far so good.
The passport person (Skip) from the Kingston P.O. went on vacation («you MUST come in today [Thursday] before 4:30 otherwise you can’t get it expedited because I am going on vacation!»); I had already passed my lunch break, and didn’t feel like heading out for unbillable hours to spend time frazzled with a manic postal worker. Princeton/​Palmer Square directed me to the main location on Carnegie, which doesn’t take passport appointments on Saturday.
But here, the woman was pleasant on the phone, told me I needed one check for $ 169.85 (passport+card+expedite fee) and another for $ 42.50 (application+Express mail); both could also be paid with a debit card (Skip told me to take in one check for, oh, just take in a blank check, maybe 2 – is there a run on checks in this country or do I somehow need pre-​addressed checks prior to leaving the house?). And I have an 11:00AM appointment tomorrow (Saturday). I may or may not ask the post office to take photos, as UPS took potentially less bad than previous passport photos for me. Also – it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. There are 10:30 and 10:45 appointments prior to mine.
Will update tomorrow.
Update:Maybe I’m wierd, but it’s unusual for postal people to be so helpful. We were waiting in line, and just before 11, a call was made for anyone with passport work to be done. Yeah! That’s me! I had filled out the wrong form and had to fill out another, and then was taken through the steps to get everything else done. No smootching! I’m jealous! :) The woman was nice and got us sorted out quickly (we were out by 11:10).
Great service.
UPDATE ⁸⁄₃₁:
Good news: the passport arrived with my documents on Saturday – yeah!
Bad news: somehow their processing of the photo gave me a pig-​pink sunburn. It even looks as though my head was cut out and attached to my neck after photoshopping with a red filter. Oh the joys of ugly passports one has to cart around for 10 years.