4.09.2011

pay it forward

Picture a typical girls night out: a Friday night in a crowded restaurant. Appetizers made with all the things we avoid in our day to day regular diets {bacon, avocado, trans fat}and lots of laughs and sighs of relief to be out without the kids {for my mommy friends, not me.} Plates being swapped along with stories and favorite SNL skits reenacted... so far, a very normal night for us.

The event that changed it from normal to memorable: our cute server comes to our table with the desert menu and says to start thinking about what we are trying after our meal.  {Assume much? What if we were full? Maybe a clever up sale tactic and I'm impressed} then he came back a couple seconds later and says, "This has never happened to me before.  Ever."  That is when I noticed a second server hovering nearby smiling at us.  She says,

"The family that just left that table over there has paid your bill."

We were all stunned.  It took a minute to register, then a million questions from the four of us all at once.  Both servers were gushing about how cool it was of them to pick us at random.  We are all smiling and wishing we could have had the chance to thank the kind strangers who picked us out of a crowded restaurant to remind us how it feels to have a random act of kindness passed our way.

So yeah, we ordered desert {our bill now, we weren't taking advantage of the strangers}to celebrate our good fortune, and maybe to draw out the meal a little more to soak in the niceness of the moment.  As we wandered the mall after from time to time one of us would say, "I can't believe that just happened to us." 

I have goosebumps and a lump in my throat just thinking about it.  How fun it'd be to pick someone at random next time I'm out and do the same for them.
{images from the snowstorm yesterday.. that is still going on strong today}

7 comments:

  1. Wow- that was so sweet! What amazing kindness. That would be so cool to do that for someone else! Thanks so much for stopping by and following my blog. :)

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  2. I get goosebumps too! I wrote about it last night in my journal and talked about how one day I'm going to do that too. What a great way to teach people to pay it forward. I guess that's how we really change people....doing things without expecting anything (not even a thank you) in return.

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  3. I'm not surprised. Wonderful things like that should happen to you....you're great.

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  4. What an amazing gesture! I remember to this day one time when I was living in Cali, crossing the bay bridge the person in front of me payed for me. What a nice person, I thought to myself. It inspired me to return the favor. I still to this day remember her and her reaction. She was a woman driving a tiny red car, maybe a mini or something of similar size, she had 50's retro glasses and a little white miniature something or other dog. She sped up and waved super happy. Whenever I think of her, I think, I need to think out of the box more often and find ways to brighten the days of others.

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  5. That happened to Kevin and Danielle once. A couple told the waiter to tell them how impressed they were with them and their 6 well behaved kids! So nice.

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  6. Thanks for the comment Jenna. Looks like you had a fun time being treated by strangers! So cool that that actually happens sometimes!

    P.S. We got those shots by turning off all our lights, changing the shutter speed on our camera to 30 seconds, and using a flashlight to draw in the air for the film. Its so much fun! Try it!

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  7. oh that's so amazingly sweet! i'd love the day when i'm financially stable enough to do something like this. what an amazing act of kindness!

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