43 acts of kindness (part 9)

My 8yo son was DETERMINED to give someone a free meal at chipotle (his favorite restaurant). But all day I forgot to get cash. So we bought a gift card. When we finished eating, we gave our gift card and "Steve note" to a single man. And he kept trying to give it back. And my son kept saying, "no! I'm paying for YOUR burrito!!"

The look on this man's face was AWESOME.

Man, what a great day this has been!

Happy birthday Steve!

***

I belong to a wonderful online digital scrapbooking community. I posted today on our message boards, telling my online friends about Steve and today's celebration. I offered to buy a digital scrapbooking kit for the first person who posted in my thread as another way to celebrate Steve. Another member of the community offered to buy another kit for someone after she read my post. 

Details are here: http://www.thedigichick.com/forums/showthread.php?35454-Acts-of-kindness

 

***

Attached is the photo of the very giggly girl at the McDonald's who really got a kick out of the gesture once I could explain that I wanted to buy the food for the person who ordered in line behind me, too.  It was really fun to watch the person reading the note left behind for them as I drove off, what a mischievous and fun way to celebrate the life of a mischievous and fun person like Steve.

***


Knowing that the Washington subway can be confusing, I went to the Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, DC with 6 farecards each worth one one-way trip in my hand and provided them to passengers trying to buy fares. This came in handy to 6 lucky recipients, as the machines that took credit/debit cards weren't working at that end of the station.

***


At dinner tonight, we left a 40% tip. I know how hard wait staff work. That job put me through college twice, so it was wonderful to give back to someone in that position. 


***


I'm a friend of Kelly Starnes and in honor of your husband's birthday, I gave a teenager money at the gas station today. He needed air in his tires  and did not have money for the machine. Hope you get 43 acts of kindness. 


***


We order pizza from the same Marco's in Edmond for our Friday night pizza & movie night. Today, we collected 43 pieces of candy, wrapped them up and included the 43 note. When we received our pizza in the drive-thru, we gave the woman the gift and a little extra tip. She smiled and said, "No way!" I smiled the entire drive home imagining her reaction after reading the card. Happy birthday, sweet Steve.

***

For my random kindness today at the ethics conference, I gave our very frazzled waitress an extra large tip. (It's not easy trying to serve 100 mental health professionals.) 

I then  spent the rest of the afternoon helping a dear friend make arrangements to rush up to New Jersey to help her 92 year old mother.  The snow storm left her mother without power and the stress made it clear that she could no longer live alone and will require immediate placement in an assisted living facility.  My friend will spend next week with her mother looking at places there and then bring her back to Virginia to look here as well.  Together we canceled  all 35 of her patients scheduled for next week and made lists of necessary steps to move her mother and notify family.  I will be covering her practice for any emergencies and also available to her to give support.

 

Happy Birthday Steve - it is a pleasure to do this in your honor!

Love, Aunt Marilyn

***

My uncle passed away from a brain tumor several years ago. I love your idea to celebrate Steve today with random acts of kindness. In memory of Steve and in honor of your family, I took care care of the toll for the vehicle behind me today. Even though it was just a small thing, it felt wonderful to provide a little surprise for someone else, especially a stranger. Thank you so much for encouraging us all to do this more often.

***

What a wonderful day. It has been so fun reading all of the posts today. I can only imagine the joy this is bringing you and the kiddos!

I am stealing your idea and going to continue the good deeds next Thursday in remembrance of my sweet friend, Kim.

Here are my kids (plus one friend) giving a cup of hot chocolate to our mailman, Floyd. We sent him along with more hot chocolate (to make at home) and the "43" card.

***

It was truly a special day here at Bledsoe. I wanted to let you know that I chose to honor Steve by showing kindness to our Special Education staff. They work so tirelessly each day, and often, they never get to eat alone, much less with their team. I asked Angie and Courtney to join me in this effort and we covered the Resource Room for a period and the SBS classroom for a period, allowing each of those teams to come to the conference room and eat together. You would have thought that we had given them the moon!! They came back smiling and rejuvenated – it was a blessing to me to see what this gift did for them. I will definitely find other opportunities to repeat this again this year.