My mom’s an OB/GYN, and a couple of months ago she had a particularly brutal week, including several all-night deliveries, obnoxious and stressful staff meetings, a bitch patient who went to the local newspaper because she felt slighted by the call-back policy, a drunken combative woman in mid-miscarriage who had to be restrained (and her drunk violent boyfriend expelled) for a D&C, and culminating in an all-night stay at the bedside of a woman whose baby had already died in utero, but who was having a long, difficult labor trying to deliver the corpse. She was wrecked.
Back when I was in school, she used to send me little care packages - expensive chocolates, exotic spreads, little tasty snacks that a starving college/grad student couldn’t possibly afford. So that week, I sent one back. Some good chocolates, local treats, and tasty indulgences, just to let her know that I was thinking about her and that someone out there thought she deserved it.
When she got the package, she called me up in tears, and she was the happiest I’ve heard her sound in months.
I covered for a co-worker while she was off on bereavement leave because her mom passed away. She was so happy not to come back to a mountain of work that she cried. I felt pretty humbled. After all, few things get my sympathy like losing a loved one.
last thing I can think of was when I took a stray cat to the SPCA, (well I took him to my parents, who took it to the SPCA).
Someone who lived in my apartment complex wanted to take the cat in, but we’re no allowed pets. She thought she left the friendly feline to die, as she left it outside to fend for itself. She didn’t know what to do, and was very happy learn that the cat was safe, and later adopted.
Would you mind starting an ‘Ask The…’ thread about these kinds of cars and where you get them? My sole experience w/ them is when a tire came off one being towed from a police auction and missed our car, hitting the car behind us.
Here’s mine for today: I walked over to this huge outdoor staircase on a big hill at lunch that many, many people in the city use as a workout tool (climb up, back down, repeat, etc.). There were two girls doing the stairs who were quite overweight, but they were motivating each other every time I passed them, and the few times I was at the bottom having a drink of water when they were. When I got to the bottom on my last rep, I heard one saying to the other (out of breath) ‘Ok, one more time, we can do this! Just once more!’. I told them they were doing awesome and they were an inspiration for me to do one more rep then I had planned on. They seemed happy to hear it.
Mine isn’t really a big deal and probably doesn’t ever make someone’s day but here’s what we do.
(a little background…last year I got a fairly significant raise so I’ve been trying to impress upon my 9-yr-old daughter the importance of being thankful for our blessings and being a blessing to someone, in some way–big or small–every day)
So anyway, every Friday morning we treat ourselves to breakfast at the Chick-fil-A drive thru. Back at Christmas my daughter came up with the idea of “Pay It Forward Fridays”. When we’re at the drive-thru, we pay for the car behind us. We ask the cashier to tell them we said to have a great day.
Like I said, nothing major, but something fun for us.
This doesn’t sound like much (even to me) but it really made my wife’s day last Christmas. We had been up late on Christmas eve trying to get all the gift-wrapping finished up. We have the entire family over for brunch on Christmas morning, so when we went to bed my wife was kind of freaking out about trying to get the house cleaned in the morning before everyone showed up. So I got up early on Christmas morning and swept and steam-mopped the kitchen floor so that there was one less thing for her to worry about. All she had to do was vacuum a couple of rooms while I worked on brunch. She said it was the best Christmas present ever!
On Sunday, we heard a knock on the front door. No one uses that door, we thought it must be JWs or the like.
I answered, prepared for the “good news,” but instead, it was three giggling college girls wanting to know if I had jumper cables.
It seems one of them was the daughter of the new family across the street, we hadn’t had a chance to meet yet.
I told them that not only did I have jumper cables, I had a husband. I woke The Honey up and told him to go be a hero. He took the truck and the girls down their long driveway, jumped the car, met our neighbor, and came home with a big grin on his face.
I helped make the girls’ day but better yet, I made Hubby’s day too.
Walked some ladies to their car while at the post office due to heavy rain. There were 3 of them - all caught without umbrellas, and I had my big golf-sized one, so I thought, “WTH”, and offered my services waling each one at a time to her car.
If I have to say, then I’m nothing but a braggart. (I’m probably one anyway)
I may have paid for my ticket to Hell a long time ago, but if I get one fluffy pillow & a last shot of scotch along the ride, there might be reason.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I got a job. I knew I had to stop my unemployment payments, but I couldn’t find anything on the website about notifying the unemployment office to stop paying me.
So I called the office to ask. The woman I spoke to was ENORMOUSLY amused. She said, “You just stop filling out your weekly job search reports and we stop paying you”. I knew this, I said, but I thought there might be something more needed to… make it official or something.
And she went on, “I’ve NEVER gotten a phone call like this. It was very nice of you to call to let us know, but you didn’t need to.” Then she asked me about the new job and how long I’ve been unemployed (18 months), and she actually said to me, “You made my day.” I got the impression she was going to to turn to her co-workers and tell them the story as soon as I got off the phone.
And if I hadn’t got a job offer earlier that same day, she would have made mine. My day was already made.
About four years ago a member of a biker “club” was pushing his Harley past my house,I went out to ask him what was wrong,he was out of gas.I took him down to the station with my gas can and got him some gas.He told me"I doubt one person in the state would have done that,thank you."
He felt good,I felt good,that was it,never saw him again…until last weekend at my yard sale,he pulls in (with several of his club members) walks right up to me and shakes my hand and thanks me again.Gave me shivers.
I was in the line to buy a lift ticket behind or near a woman who had apparently forgotten her wallet and could not buy a ticket. She was very polite but obviously very frustrated - trying to suggest a solution that the ticket vendor would accept, such as calling her cabin and having the people there read off her credit card number, etc. I heard her say that there was no point in going back as she had driven a ways to get there. I decided to pay for her ticket and tell her she could pay me back. I figured that if she never did it would still be worth it. I just interrupted them and told them that I would pay for her ticket. She was so happy I thought she was going to cry. She thanked me profusely and got my address. In less than a week I received an effusive thank you note in the mail, telling me she was telling everyone about her good samaritan, with a check AND a complimentary lift ticket. Everybody’s day was made.
