I’m 800 miles away from my friends. I’ve discovered that when people excitedly find you on FaceBook, they don’t necessarily want to talk. They must just want to add another “Friend” to their list.
We could talk.
When I first graduated from college I moved to another state to be with my (then) boyfriend. Over the summer, while traveling, we fought a bit and we (he) decided we shouldn’t live together. So when I got back to my (new) city, (where I hardly knew anyone) I had to find an apartment, and instead of needing half of everything, I needed ALL of everything. My parents were furious that I had moved away and, far from helping me out, called me daily to tell me I was ruining my life. I had a full time job and a part time job and I was just barely scraping by in terms of paying my bills with a teensy bit left over to slowly accumulate the things I needed, at yard sales. I don’t know if I’m describing it well, but it was a low time in my life.
One saturday about 2 weeks after I moved in to my new place my BF’s mother stopped by with a big boxful of groceries - flour, sugar, pasta, jars of sauce, oil, rice, canned soup, salt, pepper, some basic spices… “I thought you could use some staples,” she said. Seriously, I almost cried. As anyone who has been broke as shit knows, $40 worth of groceries at the right time can really help you out. But even more than that, it was just a good feeling right then knowing that someone had my back, even in the smallest way. She was a very kind woman.
The mother of the boyfriend who’d just dumped you? Wow, she is a kind lady.
Yup. Although it wasn’t an official dumping, we continued on rockily for years. (stupid me).
This actually happened this morning.
I live in the northeast, and just got power back last night. I take the bus into work, though it’s only about a 12-13 minute commute to a college library on a normal day. Well, the bus never showed (probably partially because they were removing a tree on the main road) so I pulled out the phone number of a professor who lives near to me. She had said I just needed to give a call to get a ride, as she goes in at the same time as I do.
Well, it turns out I called a few minutes too late, and got a hold of her husband, who I had never met. When he couldn’t get a hold of her either (she won’t answer her cell if she is driving), he actually drove over, picked me up, and took me to work! I was shocked, and very grateful.
I love hearing these stories; they make my day! I hope this thread keeps up for a good long time. 
This one’s not random, or from a stranger, but is my favorite <though far from only> reason I give for why I married my husband:
He knows I like crab. A LOT. Even worked a couple of crab processors. I mean, I really like crab!
One day he mentioned that a co-worker had tickets for a crab-feast fund-raising event, and would I like to go? Of course I said yes; this was two MONTHS before it actually happened.
When the night came, we both dressed up a bit and made a date night out of it. I ate myself silly, must have had at least 4 whole crabs; we even had a little wine…I was in hog heaven, and he was grinning at me the whole time as I made a pig out of myself. 
(Did I mention I like crab?)
About an hour into it, I notice he hasn’t really had any crab; there were lots of other things available, and he was munching on that. Said he was just taking his time. Finally he got some crab, and after a few minutes I notice he isn’t looking very well. He’d been recently diagnosed with possible fibromyalgia, and I asked him if he was feeling ok; I was all set to go home and get him comfortable. He said he was fine, but I kept asking to make sure. Finally he smiled sheepishly and just said “I really don’t like crab.”
The fact that this man took the time and effort to set up something for me that he doesn’t even LIKE…and got through most of the evening without twigging to the fact that just the smell was making him nauseous…just, wow. <3 <3 <3
That was definitely one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me.
When I was a law student, I (very uncharacteristically) missed a deadline to file some papers with the state supreme court to be eligible to take the bar exam. Several faculty members were very helpful to me in getting a waiver and thus take the bar exam as scheduled. I don’t even remember their names anymore, but at the time it was a huge relief and I remain grateful.
I’ve lived in Cleveland since 1995, and I’m glad you had a good time here. Although it has some unsafe areas (what big city doesn’t?), it is by no means one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. Use common sense, don’t hang out with criminals, and you’ll be fine: http://247wallst.com/2011/05/24/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-america/2/
[ul]
[li]I remember when an internet friend - someone I’ve never met, but have talked to as he’s a friend of a friend on FB- sent me $20 when I was upset at expenses one month. My son was two and I was struggling to get food even though I was working full-time. He must’ve noticed an unhappy post on Facebook about cash. It was so random. I wouldn’t have said, “We need food!” but I probably wrote something like, “I have $5 in the bank til next Friday and I’m in a panic. :(”[/li]
[li]There was the time I was in a hospital for a suicide attempt. It was Rosh Hoshanah. My best friend visited every day like clockwork, full visiting hours -and brought apples & honey from Whole Foods. [/li]
[li]There were the three other times I was in a hospital for the same reason, and the same best friend was still there, making sure I had somewhat edible food.[/li]
[li]My old boss/teaching coach casually tossing a couple of Transformers on my desk when he knew things were tight when I was getting a teaching license. My son’s birthday and Hanukkah are either back to back or coincide.[/li]
[li]Recently, I needed dental work and couldn’t afford it. I had $300 to spare (just replaced two tires on my car, too) and needed $1,100. My friend notified her husband, a rabbi, and he sent me a check for $800 from his discretionary fund. I got half the work done and am still short $1,500 for the next round, but most of the pain went away. I’m going to donate some money to his fund from my quilt and kippah making.[/li]
[li]The gentleman who helped me when I had a flat tire a few years back. Thank you, stranger. [/li]
[li]Friends who remember us on holidays. We’re really far from ‘home’ (Iowa) and even though I’ve lived in Colorado for years now, I’m not wanting to be in a steady relationship, so ‘family’ is still ‘the two of us’.[/li]
[li]And then there’s my dad. He’s usually an asshole, really. But after being extremely sad over a breakup (which confused him enough), he flew me out to visit him. Not knowing what to do, he set me up in a penthouse suite at a casino he visits and granted me access to the salon and boutique. I came back with a lot of things I didn’t need and a lot of things I was happy for (Aveda products! Hobo bags!). There was one point where he was literally throwing purses at me in different colors. Kicking myself now, but I actually put some back. I’m kind of smiling now. “Do you like steak? Why don’t you get out of bed so we can get steak? Or the ladies downstairs can do your hair. I really wish you wouldn’t make it so blonde, but you know, they do a nice job.” Not only that, he paid for my mom (his ex wife) and my half brother (a child not his) and my brother (his child) and my own son to come with. So we had three adjoining suites together and his was down the hall. It isn’t often he pays attention to me like that, so I’m still a little baffled by his response. Still, his behavior a few years ago keeps me from thumping him on the head nowadays.[/li][/ul]
Yeah, people have done nice things for me when I wasn’t expecting or asking. I try to return it for others.
I thought of some more:
[ul]
[li]The time when Little CP planned me a ‘birthday party’ (“Mom, you can stay up as late as you want and eat cupcakes for dinner!!”)[/li]
[li]Last Saturday, I woke up to find Little CP grinning at me with a cup of coffee. “Good morning!” I taught him how to make coffee a few weeks ago, and he was like, “I finally woke up first!” He also poured me cereal. Love that kid.[/li]
[li]When I had The Worst Case of Strep Throat Ever, Little CP took care of me, bringing me cool rags when I had a fever and bowls of ice cream when I could finally swallow.[/li]
[li]My students threw me a surprise birthday party once. A frigging plus. I cried. :D[/li]
[li]My ex changed my car battery. Wasn’t a big deal, except my car is kind of awkward and you practically have to take the thing apart to get to the battery. It was 20 degrees outside and it took him two hours.[/li][/ul]
There was one time when I was really depressed and took a whole bunch of sleeping pills and then bitched about it on here cuz it really kinda messed me up.
When I woke up the next morning I had 2 messages from people here expressing their concern about how I was feeling and making sure I was ok.
I really consider you guys closer friends of mine than pretty much all of my friends in real life.
It’s sort of hard to decide what the truely nicest thing is.
But as far as random moments of niceness goes, this summer my mother, my girlfriend and came back from a trip and were caught in a huge rainstorm when we got off the train.
We took cover under a tree (never smart of course) but then a car stopped and this woman and her child offered us a ride to our place.
VERY friendly and nice of them and very appreciated. Even 10 seconds in that rain soaked us. More than a minute would’ve made the three of us curl up and cry.
The day before my wedding, my best friend (the Best Man) asks if I need anything the day of. I say, “a handheld fan”. I sweat a lot and didn’t want to look all sweaty during a long Bilingual Catholic ceremony.
Him and his wife not only bring me a fan, but a SPARE FAN just in case of fan malfunction or I didnt like the first one. And spare batteries. I couldnt believe it. Best thing ever!
A few years back, while living in a cheap house with really freaking annoying housemates; for the first time, they’d agreed to let a friend of mine over for a night- everyone else was fine to invite who they liked, but all of my friends would ‘scare the dogs.’ :rolleyes: It was a friend I’d met in Australia, who was over on a tripround Europe, and was supposed to be going to a festival which had been cancelled at short notice due to flooding.
I’d arranged it about 2 weeks earlier, as soon as the festival got cancelled- checked with everyone in the house that he’d be OK to sleep on the couch in the living room, and everyone had given it the OK. Until the night before, when I had no way of getting in touch with my friend, one of the other housemates casually told me that he’d just invited a friend of his to visit, and she’d be sleeping on the couch. Was seriously pissed off with him- my friend was due to show up next morning, and I had nowhere for him to sleep.
Then someone rang me- a few weeks earlier, I’d messaged someone on freecycle who had a spare folding bed (it folded up into a chair- so was perfect for my small room) to get rid of. She’d messaged me back and said it had been promised to someone else, but he hadn’t showed, and instead of throwing it out, she decided to call the next person on the list, and offer it me. I jumped at the chance, and next morning walked round to her house- and realised that it wasn’t wooden, as I’d thought from the ad- which I would have had a chance at carrying the short distance back to my house- it was metal, and seriously heavy.
Despite being late for work, and never having met me before, this lovely person squeezed it into the back of her tiny car, and drove me home with it just in order to give it me. I just had time to set it up before my friend arrived.
I know she would argue that she wasn’t just doing it for me, but…
I’m not likely to ever forget when I got stuck in DC on a business trip for three weeks last year, working seven days a week. I found out at about 4:30pm on a Saturday that I wasn’t actually going to have to work that Sunday. In less than 30 minutes, jsgoddess had packed herself a bag and hopped in her car and drove SEVEN HOURS one way just to spend a little over 24 hours with me, then turned around drove the seven hours back.
Yeah, it’s sappy, but I still get emotional thinking about it.
Not actually me, but it’s too good of a story not to share.
A friend of mine, Janet, started her story with the words “You know who is the football fan in my family, right?”
Yes, we all know that Janet is the fan, and her husband Frank tolerates her enthusiasm. Janet is the sort of person who if you sit her down for five minutes in front of a basketball, football, or soccer game, will have picked a team to root for, and soon be cheering as wildly as if she had loyalty to them.
At any rate, they have season tickets to the local big college football games, but sit in the back row of the nosebleed section, because good seats and affordable ones aren’t the same.
Well, one Saturday recently, Janet decided that the grandbaby (Brianna, aged four) needed some grandpa time. Or maybe she decided that Frank needed some grandbaby time.
So Frank and Brianna are sitting in the back row of the stands, Brianna devouring her hotdog, when up walks this nice older gentleman.
He asks Brianna if she’d like to have a really good time.
Would she like to watch the game from the 50 yard line, 22 rows up?
So Frank and Brianna get to watch the entire game from some of the best seats in the house. Brianna cheers her heart out–and can really see what’s going on. Their temporary neighbors are having fun because how can you be near someone having the time of her life and not have fun, the football team actually won, the weather was perfect, Frank enjoyed himself more than he expected to . . . .
and Janet is jealous. Trying not to show it, but undeniably jealous.
A once in a lifetime opportunity (apparently the guy who invited Brianna and Frank to use the better seats had originally invited his nephew, who ended up not being able to attend and so he went looking for a substitute small child to enjoy the game with), and she sent her husband.
Not another RUSH hijacking….
Okay, so I’ve seen the disagreements on the Dope boards about whether or not RUSH is all that great of a band or all that profound or even that technically skilled and so on…
But the original post reminded me….
I was on a BBS chat board (remember those?) in Southern California, whining to strangers a bit about my girlfriend dumping me and how it had been so long that I didn’t know how to have fun without her around. There were several people sharing the conversation, including a guy whom I didn’t really like all that much but was a friend of a friend of a friend. After a while, he told everyone “Bye guys, I gotta log off and get ready for a concert.”
“Oh my god!” I sent him a private message, “You’re going to RUSH tonight!”
“Yeah,” he sent back, “You wanna go? I’ve got an extra ticket. Meet me at the record store across from the sports arena, 7:30PM”
So I logged off, jumped in my truck, and zipped down to the record store. JT met me there and explained there was a new part-time receptionist-for-the-summer at his work whom he had invited to the concert. She accepted so he called in some favors and bought two tickets, but then her mother forbade the date since JT was 23 and the receptionist was 16 (oh, and it was a school night).:dubious: Since I sounded interested, the extra ticket didn’t have to be wasted.
JT had 5th row center tickets that must have cost a mint as well as the favors he called in. The band was at the peak of its career so the concert was astounding. Four hours of raucous partying later the lights came on and we all staggered out with our ears ringing and our throats hoarse from cheering, screaming, and trying to sing along to Geddy Lee’s high notes. When we got to the top of the stairs and merged with the huge crowd on the concessions floor JT nudged me, waved, and disappeared into the mayhem.
Two months passed before I saw JT again. When I saw him at a mutual friend’s gathering, I pulled out a wad of cash and told him it was for the RUSH ticket. JT looked straight into my eyes and said to me with a wry smile, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
…and I bet you thought this wasn’t going to be appropriate for this thread. 
Actually, I’ve seen RUSH twice since then, even though they’re not really one of my favorite bands. They just tend to put on a great show Still, never have they been so good and never have I had such a good seat. And I learned I could still have fun…
–G!
“Why are we here?
Because we’re here!
Roll the Bones.
Roll the Bones.”
. --RUSH
. Roll the Bones
Apologies, Grestarian – I would have PMed you if I could. Just curious as to which BBS you were on. Quite possible we’ve met. 
Reading these feed my soul, and yes, Sir T-Cups, it is the little stuff (and sometimes the big stuff) that really makes a difference.
Three things come to mind for me.
The first was many, many years ago when I was still married and we had a junker car. We were dirt poor and were saving enough money to buy tires for the barely running car. Sure enough, one afternoon, I’m in the car with the two Hallgirls (who must have been about 6 months and a little over two years) when one of the tires blows out. Although we’d saved enough cash for a couple of tires, I had absolutely no money on me (no checks, no credit cards, nothing). Some guy stopped by and offered to change the tire for me. When I explained that we didn’t have a spare, he offered to give me a ride to the nearest payphone. I had no one to call (we had one car–the one I had been driving–and my then husband was a work), and explained that we were saving to get tires and hadn’t gotten to that point yet to get all of them replaced. He ended up taking off my old tire, driving me home to get the money, taking me to the tire store, where I bought a tire, then taking me (and Hallgirls) back to my car and putting on the new tire. No, I didn’t think to get his contact information to thank him with a note or anything.
Again, another car related story. Hallgirl1 had just moved out to college, and one night, my car broke down (alternator went out). I had no money, aside from enough to buy an alternator (not enough money to pay someone to put it on), so Hallgirl (who had her own junker at this point) came back from college for the day to help me put the alternator on the car. At this point, it was still on the side of the road where it had broken down. We went to the parts store and bought the part and bought the repair manual, getting additional tips from the guy behind the counter on how to change the alternator. When we get there, everything is going well until we can’t possibly loosen the one belt. We had our pry bar and it wasn’t budging. Suddenly a truck pulls over and a lady gets out to ask if she can help. I explain that we’re trying to replace the alternator and can’t get the belt loosened. She says her husband is following her from the store and maybe he can help loosen it. He pulls up right about then. Not only does he stop to help loosen the belt, but he helps remove the old alternator and replace the new one, then jumps the car to get it running. Yes, that time, I did get his contact info and for many years later, we sent him and his wife a Christmas card each year.
A few years ago, I woke up not feeling right, with a ebb and flow pain on my side. It hurt bad enough that I eventually decided to go to the doctor, but couldn’t drive. One of my best friends took off work for the day and took me to the doctor, who then decided I needed to go to for tests (scans, ultrasounds, etc.), which took HOURS. My friend was there with me the entire day. But that’s not the best thing she did. While waiting for one of the ultrasounds (with a full bladder), I was incredibly nausous and ended up throwing up. Because of this, I needed clean, unsoiled clothing, so my friend ran out to her car and got me an outfit she had bought the previous day and hadn’t taken out of her car yet. She came back in, tore off the tags (!) and gave me the new outfit she’d bought. (It was just a pair of slacks and a blouse, but it was clean, and it was new!) I ended up having major surgery the following day, but did manage to clean her new outfit and return it later.