SWMBO and I went out to one of our favorite sushi places the other night. We are inveterate people watchers. We’ll pick out folks and try to guess their story: are they dating, are they married, whatever.
As we were finishing up, a young couple came in and were seated about two tables away from us. We immediately started doing our thing and came to the conclusion that they were probably high school seniors on a date and that they had known each other for a long time; probably grew up next door to each other or something like that. We enjoyed watching them chatter and flirt and when we got our check, we looked at each other and almost simultaneously said, “Let’s pay for their dinner.”
The same waitress was serving both of us, so we called her over and told her what we were going to do. I paid our check and left an extra $40 cash for the kids. The waitress told us that their bill wasn’t going to be that much and we told her to keep the difference as a tip. She thought what we were doing was outstanding and was happy to play along with us.
We left and giggled all the way home, visualizing the looks on the kids’ faces when the waitress told them their meal was paid for.
What was the last thing you did along these lines?
Drive through window at the Starbuck on the south shore of Montreal. There was an ambulance behind me. I gave the clerk an extra $10 and told her to give each of the EMTs a pastry.
Last one I can recall is when my husband and I went to a restaurant for lunch on Christmas Eve; we had driven up tp my hometown to see my side of the family. We were early and stopped for lunch at a nice British-themed pub near our hotel. The waitress was nice, and chatted with us about the beer and cuisine of the place, as well as the other restaurants the owner has. Since customers showing up are the reason restaurants are open, and we were lucky enough to have the day off, we ended up tipping her the cost of the meal - and zipped out the door so she wouldn’t see the amount of the tip until we were gone.
The other day I was pulling up to a McDonald’s drive-thru and arrived at the same time as a guy in a truck. I was expecting him to barge right in and I would go after, as seems to happen more and more these days, with that me-first mentality, but lo and behold he waved me right in. I paid for his meal to acknowledge his kindness. I hope he didn’t think that was weird.
A few months ago, I was waiting in the drive through line at my usual coffee/espresso stand. I was getting mildly annoyed because I couldn’t figure out what was taking the person in front of me so long.
That person finally drove off and I greeted the barista. She informed me the person in front of me had paid for my Americano. She also told me the last 10 or 15 customers had done had paid for the following customers’ drinks. As you can imagine, all my annoyance just melted away. I handed the barista a five and told her to use it toward the cost of the next person’s order.
I found out the next day that this “pay it forward” had gone for several hours.
I guess it’s small in the grand scheme of things, but still it’s the small things that can make my day.
I sent about 7 DVDs of interesting video to one of my favorite former students at college, and didn’t officially admit to it. But the same day he emailed me on Facebook and thanked me. That’s more than enough.