It happens so often, nothing is really sticking out in my mind as a classic example. Oh wait! Just thought of one...
On Sunday, I went to the grocery store for ingredients to make soup. At the checkout counter, the cashier rotely asked "Did you find everything okay?" Well, since she asked, I told her, "Actually, you're out of the cream that's on sale. In fact, there are about five different kinds of cream that are all completely sold out. The cream section is totally empty except for this one half-pint I found." I wasn't giving her a hard time about it - I was just trying to be helpful by filling her in on the deficiency in the dairy section so she could alert a stockboy. She was very sweet, and offered to check in the back for more, but I didn't care that much about saving 40 cents for the stuff on sale. Besides, my belly was getting impatient for the broccoli-cheddar soup for which the cream was destined. "Don't worry about it, this kind is fine," I told the nice girl. "Well," she smiled, "I'm just going to give this to you for free since we didn't have the kind that's on sale," and she put the cream in my grocery bag. I gushed out my gratitude, she smiled bigger, and we wished each other a great day.
Stuff like that happens to me all the time.
So this afternoon, I loaded up the car to head to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner: fresh-from-the-oven pumpkin pie, bottle of wine, laptop, purse, and jacket in the front seat; dogs in the back (they love to run around my parents' huge back yard, and then I don't have to exercise them later). I stopped at Blockbuster to drop off a video, and decided to run into the Starbucks next door for a coffee-flavored drink, which I rarely do, but for some reason, today I wanted one.
I got in line behind three women who spent an inordinately long time deciding what to order. I inadvertently caught the eye of the guy waiting on them, and we exchanged a brief look of good-natured exasperation. When it was my turn, he smiled again and asked for my order as I stepped up to the counter and reached into my purse for my wallet. I started to order, but then I looked down and said "Oh, no... I think I left my debit card in the pocket of my jeans last night!" Without missing a beat, he replied, "That's okay. What do you want?" and I said, "I have my checkbook - do you take checks?" and he said, "Don't worry about it. What can I get you?" and I said, "A small vanilla latte, please?" (I really, really dislike saying "tall") and he asked for my name, wrote it on the cup, and said it would be right up. I smiled a bit incredulously but very gratefully, and wished him a Happy Thanksgiving.
I was still smiling a few minutes later as I took my drink from the counter and walked out of the store and across the parking lot, where I could see the wagging tail and hindquarters of my lab mix sticking up in the passenger seat of my car. I started running then, yelling "NO, GRACIE, NO!!!" only to open the door and see her nose happily buried in the pie plate on the floor of the car.
It turned out okay in the end... I got to my parents' house with just enough time to bake a replacement pie.
And really, have you ever seen a happier-looking dog?
