Paying it Forward, Backward and Sideways

"Instant karma's gonna get you, gonna knock you off your feet.  Better recognize your brothers, everyone you meet." - John Lennon

Earlier this month I was on a flight from Chicago Midway to DC.  After takeoff I was moving around in my seat and noticed a Blackberry in the crack between the seat and the seatback.  I considered for a moment whether or not to turn it in, and decided to keep it and find the owner myself.  You know it would have been more lost than found in the airline's lost and found department.  I contacted the owner the next day, got her address and mailed the phone to her at my own expense.  No problem I said to her, paying it forward you know.

A week later to the day, I was in line at a sandwich shop and had realized when I got to the cashier that my debit card was missing.  I had left it at my previous stop!  As I stood there panicked the lady behind me offered to pay my lunch.  It was, ironically, almost the same amount as what I paid to mail the phone.  Exactly a week later!

The next week I get a thank you note from the woman whose phone I returned.  It was very nice and she was so happy to have her phone back with work and some personal stuff she had going on.  The funny thing was, as she travels almost constantly for work, that the phone showed up at her house on the one day she was home this entire month!  I thought, wow, I have to tell her about my lunch incident.  So I remembered where she worked and guessed at the email syntax and shot off an email.  Her response this morning was nothing short of amazing! 

She said she had a story to share with me, and here is her account:
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"The girl in front of me was limping and struggling while all the people behind me were tisking wondering what the hold up was.  I asked her, "Are you okay?" She said she was, but her flip flop broke and she could barely walk. Without even thinking, I just said, "What size are you? I'm a Nine...." She nodded in agreement and I quickly took off my flip flops and said, "Here, take mine, I have two pairs of shoes right in my bag."
She said, "You're giving me your SHOES????" Everyone in the line was looking at me aghast.  I said, "Someone just mailed me my blackberry I left on a plane in DC....I have about nine more pairs to give away to pay that one forward." Everyone laughed and the whole line lit up with smiles.  I popped on my high heels and walked through the terminal -- feeling just great!
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Ok, so really, you just can't make up stuff like this!

It makes me wonder, if now that girl may help someone she would have otherwise walked past, and maybe some of those other people that overheard would do the same.

Maybe I can change the world after all, just as I had planned, one person at a time.

Why The Hell Did I Buy That?

I am a recovering shopaholic.  I was the queen of retail therapy.  One of the excuses I used to tell myself when I wanted to make an obviously unnecessary purchase was that "someday" I would use it, and its easier to have many things if you spread the purchase of them over time.  This has actually worked for me on many occasions, especially with household goods.  I horded stuff at my townhouse, often upacked in the original box stacked in the garage, in the hopes of using it when I moved to a larger house.  Once I was in a house, I purchased stuff for future events, like hosting a party, or improving the decor.  

So about 3 years ago I purchased these wall-igraphy things from a store in Culpeper, thinking "I'll put these up after I repaint my bedroom".   They are handwritten appliques, which say a phrase or word, and when applied to the wall it looks like someone painted them.  I thought they were pretty cool.  So I bought two and stashed them for when I painted my bedroom.  Well that finally happened about 2 weeks ago.

So tonight I was cleaning Bailey's room and I found them on her bookshelf.  I thought "well, damn.  Now I can put these up!"  So I took them into my room to check them out.  The first one said "dream".  I opened it and was first disappointed to see that it was block lettering and not fancy lettering.  Then I pulled the adhesvie strip back a little to see how it worked, and I was secondly disappointed to find that the color was tan, not black as I intended.  Ugh!  I cannot put tan lettering on blue paint.  It needed to be black.  So back in the box it went with a one-way ticket to ebay. 

I pulled out the second box and looked at the outside of it.  This one says "It doesn't get any better than this!"  Yes, with an explanation point even.  At least it was black, but what kind of crap is that?  Why the hell did I buy that? Well I can't put THAT on my wall!  After a long day of trying to work on a complicated personal project, and do my regular work, and make breakfast, and make lunch, and failing miserably at keeping Bailey from destroying my house, and dishes, and laundry and more work (shall I go on?)

I'm thinking that this stupid thing shouldn't say "It doesn't get any better than this!"...it should say "Is this as good as it gets?"

I would totally put THAT on my wall.