It's Christmas. Kill me now.
Guess who is not in the Christmas spirit? Is it June?
Nevertheless, I asked all y'all to go out and do good deeds as you saw fit, and here they are. As for mine, I passed a Salvation Army bucket in front of the store, and despite my grave need for speed and also cash, I got money out my wallet and gave to the bucket. The sad part was that as soon as I did, a whole gaggle of people started singing Hark the Harold Angels Sing. Holy cats. It was like I put money in a very bad juke box.
Okay anyway. Here are your deeds.
Bought Starbuck's for the person behind me in drive-up twice.
At store the other day, paid for my $60 purchase with $100 cash. The harried clerk was interrupted during the transaction by her manager about break time. She handed me back $80 in change. I didn't notice until I went into Subway to get lunch. I took the money back and made sure the girl didn't get fired for shorting her drawer.
My coworker said her brother was bummed due to stupid ex-wife antics regarding the Christmas tree/ornaments and then saying to the children, "Isn't it a shame you don't have a tree at your dad's house?" Well, you may hate me for this if you want, but I get REALLY ticked when I hear of women who play the ass in a divorce for any reason (but she instigated it to live with her secret boyfriend), so I impulsively said - hey! I have a HUGE, impressive tree. He can have it. So I gave him my Christmas tree. He was thrilled.
MY RAoK was to donate to the Hoboken Shelter after Hurricane Sandy.
I was in line at Target and the woman behind me had two children who were not exactly "happy" to be in line! I let her go ahead of me as I remember those days well...God bless her!
My RAOK was donating to our neighborhood outreach program which is providing Christmas presents to two families this year. I also helped get the word out to all the neighbors so they could participate.
So far my RAoKs have been to re-adopt the family of 7 girls we gifted last year. Who needs help at Christmas time more than the grandparents who adopted these girls? I snagged a really cute IKEA bunkbed from a friend to give them. And my husband researched and found a great deal on a computer for them, as well. I will do the usual new socks, underwear, pajamas and a few family board games.
I did buy gifts for the orphanage our church supports. And one of the elderly ladies at our church was complaining that she wasn't able to read her Bible anymore so I found one with the biggest print I could find and had it given to her annonymously so she is happy about that. And the best part is that she is just beside herself trying to figure out who did that for her and it is a little bit of excitement in her life.
Moved a shopping cart, that someone left smack dab behind a truck, all the way back to the cart rack.
Dropped some money at the VA's donation table in the mall AND danced while I did it. The donation dude said I made his day.
Helped the lady that had a seizure in the Walmart parking lot - details on the Pie on the Face page.
Gave a customer at Tiger Direct our $10 off coupon because we couldn't use it.
I don't know if this counts but my sister and I decorated our Dad's house and put up a tree for him yesterday. He was so pleased. I don't have my tree up yet, but this was better.
I prevented a woman from leaving a public restroom with her skirt jammed in the back of her pantyhose.
We live on a military installation in Germany. My daughter and I took homemade Christmas candy and fudge to the guards at the gate who stand out in all sorts of weather keeping us safe. They were happy!
My RAoK was to make cookies for my ungrateful, whiny coworkers.
I paid for the car toll for a guy behind me.
I went to the open space near my home and picked up trash obnoxious hikers dropped.
I have a GYN appointment today and I took a shower.
Due to our awful temporary work spaces due to our office renovations, I have one of our receptionists in a cube about 5 feet behind me (which is not at all annoying when I'm trying to concentrate to hear her answering 500 calls every minute and repeating every page 4 times because they always repeat pages twice but we are all split up in two parts of the building so they have separate intercom systems). Anyway, she hurt her knee last week and is on crutches so I offered to carry anything she needs carried or help her in any way I can. She hasn't actually asked me to do anything, but is it enough that I've offered? Also, I haven't choked one of my bosses who is annoying me today. And I made address labels for one of my other bosses and his wife for the Christmas cards so he won't have to hand address them.
I donated to the Salvation Army bucket at the Walmart. I think that might be the only time since I'm avoiding that place. I was nice to my mother this morning even though she was in a very horrible mood.
My RAoK was to adopt a child from our church's angel tree. I specifically chose a teenager because no one picks them. I got her everything she asked for and then I wrote her a letter telling her what a pleasure it was to shop for her and that we were certain God had big plans for her in life.
Opened my home to two students who have no place to go over the semester break. I can't really call this random, because I have known for years I wanted to do this, but didn't until now find myself able to do such a thing.
On the plus side, it made me look back 40 years and call the woman who acted as my "other mother" to thank her for being there for me when I needed her back then. It was a wonderful conversation, with tears on both sides.
I live near Toronto, Ontario and there was a cat found in a carrier last week outside a McDonald's crying. The poor baby had had her back broken. They found a shelter to take her in and found she had suffered other (healed)injuries along with her lower-limb paralysis. They were looking for some donations so she can have surgery. I won $100 recently so I donated all of it.
For our family RAoK, we're sending gifts for the kids of a family member who has struggled this year. Looking to do it anonymously, but that might be tough. We generally adopt a family through work, but decided to keep it closer to home this year.
A woman at work (who everyone despises) had a toilet paper tail. Normally I would have just let that walk on by, but not today! Today I stopped her and said "um... You got a little something...". Yay me!
Was in drive-thru at McDonalds. Paid for the car behind me. Man, I could see the girl's huge smile all the way from the end of the parking lot. I think the cashier got a kick out of it too.
I bought some maternity clothes for a young woman in an alcohol/drug addiction recovery program, and I'm going to tuck in a little something for the impending baby, too.
My RAoK was to the Salvation Army Angel Tree - purchased clothes and toys for a 3-yr-old boy.
This was not a random act of kindness but a conscious intentional disciplined one. I was given 3 different pieces of erroneous information by 3 different entities I am working with which cost me half a day in time as I'm working on getting benefits and insurance for my mother. It is 2 weeks before Christmas, I am stressed as hell with this Executrix stuff, I am a month behind on holiday stuff, my mother is a widow of 3 weeks and I was on edge, I tell you, on edge. (scary font) But I thought that the people I was on the phone with might be on edge, too, and you never know what is going on in their lives, too, so I was extra nice and patient reassuring that everybody makes mistakes (bitch), and I hope they have a good day.
I made up some gallon ziplocks with those tiny Wisp toothbrushes with toothpaste inside, chapstick, fancy-grade moist towelettes, plastic spoons, pudding snacks, nuts, cookies, and crackers, and gave them out to the panhandlers at my local highway intersections this week. Not very random, I guess, but it was my act of kindness this week.
I went to a restaurant by myself for lunch because Mr. Garden Girl was leading a hike for the day. Sat and watched the families and thought about christmas. Ate my angel hair pasta and diet coke and left a $20 tip with a note that said "Merry Christmas" and beat it out of there before the nice college age server could catch me.
I was running to Walmart quickly while my daughter was getting a haircut. When I was jumping out of the car a guy asked me to give his car a boost because he had a dead battery. I said sure, why not. He was quite chatty and wasn't in any hurry. I didn't make it to Walmart, but was happy to help someone. It could have easily been me in his shoes.
To cheer my hospitalized grandmother, I picked up some travel sized toiletries, slipper sox, magazines and a Christmas cactus. On the way to the check-out line, I realized that her roommate might also need some cheer so I turned around and picked up another set of the items. Turns out the roommate has no family so my little RAoK attempt made her day.
When one of my neighbors who had signed up to host the Christmas dinner for our women's group, but then had major plumbing issues and there was no way she could host it, I volunteered to host it for her. This decision spurred me into putting up the Christmas tree and decorations (which I don't always do) and clean, clean, clean like a crazy woman (which I don't always do), roast a turkey and host sixteen women for our potluck Christmas dinner. I realize that other than helping out a neighbor, I am the clear winner. A clean and decorated house. A delicious dinner with good friends. Yay, me.
We gave up our Thanksgiving dinner and put the $250 we would have spent aside in order to donate to various Stupid Storm Sandy relief efforts. So far we have distributed $100 worth of goods from Costco to a young man who was collecting in honor of his mother who passed away a week after the storm. We also bought about $50 worth of games/toys to distribute to some secret santa/giving trees. We think we are going to give the rest of the $ to our county food bank.
the woman in line in from of me was approx. $9.00 short of having enough money to pay her grocery bill. she was starting to pick out stuff to put back, so i just gave her ten bucks. she got all flustered and didn't want to take it, but the cashier ooohed and aaahed and eventually the woman took it. she offered me the change but i told her to keep it. when i got checked out, she was outside telling the salvation army bell-ringer about it. i had to go meet him and yes, i dumped the change from the bottom of my purse in his kettle.
I drove 5 hours yesterday to visit with a cousin who has been in a nursing home for the past year and he's only 50. So partial good deed and partial family responsibility. I've also sent a monetary donation to St Jude Children's Hospital and purchased a gift card for a family in need.
My RAoK was buying a pair of shoes for one of my students whose soles were flapping. I put them in the office and had them call him down so he didn't know it was me.
Donated to Salvation Army buckets. Offered a gentleman with only two items to go ahead of me at the grocery store checkout line.
While I was at the airport, I sat by a woman's stuff so that she could supervise taking her 2 boys to the washroom. If she would've stopped her texting & paid attention to them, they would've been good as gold. Guess my 2nd RAOK is that I didn't share this nugget of wisdom with her.
Unloaded groceries into the car of a very old woman and then helped her get into the car.
Gave someone "my" outlet for their computer. You have no idea how outlets are fought over in my work. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.
My RAOK this weekend was to hand out Macy's coupons to people who needed them. I knew I had to walk through Macy's to get where I needed to go - so just took the coupons with me and passed them out. Nothing big. But it did make people smile.
RAOK #1 - bought breakfast for the person behind me at Chik-fil-a drive through.
RAOK #2 - split my swim lane with a woman at the Y today so she could get started on her workout. She has had hip surgery (twice!) and it is such an effort for her to get into the pool. As she got on the bottom step, some young kid dove in from the other end and took the empty lane. So I told her that I would take one end of the pool and she the other so we could both work out at the same time.
I will share one from the other day while my husband and I were out shopping. Okay, I had nothing to do with it. But it made me feel good watching him help some lady get her belt put on her van. She had it on but not all the way. So he fixed it so it wouldn't shred on her way home. He's a good guy!
My RAOK was providing and delivering a basket of fruit and pastries to my neighbor's family for their breakfast after the devastating loss of his parents. Another was an additional donation to Salvation Army and a third was donating toys to the Toys For Tots collection box. I was the recipient of two RAOKs. One of our neighbors cleaned off our driveway while we were running errands and a gentleman let me go ahead of him at the checkout line at the local market.
As I was passing the wrapping station I noticed the volunteers were from The Humane Society so I asked them to wrap a book I had bought and put a $20 in their coffers which made them deliriously happy.
RAoK - We heard about a single mother who was struggling and a group of us have purchased gift cards to be given to her anonymously today. I've had a tough time the past couple months (my sister in law passed away and we had to put our precious border collie Brady down as he had cancer...) and I wanted to give back as everyone has been so kind and thoughtful to me and my family.
This woman in my neighborhood got custody of her grandson, but she can't afford Christmas this year, so I bought a gift, wrapped it, and left it on her doorstep.
I donated $10 at my grocery store's Food for Families program. The store matches the donation and so far has delivered over 3 million pounds of food to needy families. I saw an elderly (as I am!) woman struggling to remove her walker from the trunk of her car and got out of my car to remove it for her. I moved a shopping cart out of a parking spot so someone could park closer to the store. I've donated money to several animal organizations.
Yesterday I was sitting at a red light. From the car next to me I could year whooping and yelling and I could see peripherally that the whole car/SUV was rocking. Clearly attention was being wanted. I looked over and there were 4 teenage boys yelling something and rocking back and forth hard enough to rock that SUV, hard. The windows were down on my side of their car. I rolled down my window which was quite clearly what they wanted, as the commotion increased. I smiled at them and yelled, "It makes me so happy to see you so happy!" I wish I had a video of what happened next. These four boys trying so hard to be BAD stopped in their tracks. One of them said, "Thank you, Ma'am. We're on break." Apparently school had just gotten out and that was the beginning of Christmas break. All four of them now looked like happy children instead of big BAD boys. We exchanged a few happy words about the joy of 11 days of break time, and the light turned green. They tried to go back to their whooping and rocking but all they could do was smile. They're probably still trying to figure out who that old woman was and if she's a friend of their grandmother's or something. It made us all happy. (and maybe prevented a stupid-teenage accident a mile up the road) When I saw them so happy I thought of Sandy Hook. Because I taught for so any years when I see a teenager I often see the 7 or 8 year old they used to be. That is what had happened in this case. I saw first graders who had grown up to be beautiful and healthy and happy. My expression of joy to them was genuine. They felt it.
Last year I started getting my elderly neighbor's newspaper and putting it on her porch because she was worried about slipping and falling. That has morphed into us (either me, my husband, or one of my boys) cutting her grass, raking her leaves, and shoveling her sidewalks when it snows. Now when her kids come to visit they can actually visit and not do chores.
Yesterday morning I woke up and couldn't stop crying. Tired of all the doo-doo I am still struggling through with my father's estate and feeling extra lonely (missing my doggie), and my beautiful 24 year old Godchild came over with her dog and a jar of molasses and while I played with Ezra Pound Puppy (now 2) in the backyard, she baked me spicy molasses cookies and then left my kitchen spotless. A morning of fun sharing our favorite funny blog spots, gossip about The Pie, doggie-love, her glorious face and heart, and the smell of spicy molasses cookies chased the tears away. It was a wonderful act of kindness for the cost of a few hours and a jar of molasses.
I returned two shopping charts (buggies if you are southern) to inside the Wal-Mart this morning in the freezing weather and wind. People leave their carts abandoned in the middle of the parking lot.
RAOK #1 - Donated several times to Salvation Army. RAOK #2 - Donated to Old Newsboys. RAOK#3 Purchased Christmas for needy family.
The other day, as I was getting gas, I went inside and bought hot chocolate to give to the truck driver standing next to the tanker that was putting gas into the ground. He seemed really happy, and it made my day.
every time i go to Aldi's I leave the quarter in the cart when i return it... does that count?
I have been thinking about all these RAoK, things that I would have done anyway, and after reading about Ann Curry's call to #26Acts, I came up with an idea that I am going to try to keep all year long. Those little angels who died were at the perfect Santa age. They believed in that magic. My own almost 12-year old daughter just told me that she 'knows' all about Santa. I told her that I hear the bells because I believe that Santa is in all of us. So I came up with a concept I am calling Operation S.A.N.T.A. - Simple Acts of Niceness To All. I am keeping track of them on a page of my blog. If you want to know more, or would like to grab the button I created for your blog, check out the post here: http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/2012/12/operation-santa.html
Last night my daughter and I made 26 snowflakes to be sent to the Sandy Hook school via the CT PTSA group, gave my favorite coffee shop girl a big tip today, I am working on a simple necklace design that will have the message "You are Loved" to be given to the local women's shelter, and I am making a mother's necklace for a coworker who doesn't have a lot of money to treat herself, but two gorgeous young children. Enjoy the day! Erin
I donated to Olympic Animal Sanctuary. I know there are tons of worthy pet programs out there, but these guys are the tops. They save dogs that would otherwise be put down because they've been labeled as biters or vicious. Well, you can read about the Sanctuary yourselves at http://www.olympicanimalsanctuary.org/
Yesterday I was at our local 7-11 buying a Slurpee for my youngest I paid for the Slurpee of the special needs man in line behind me. I don't know who was happier, the man, the store clerk, or me.
A friend of mine from work let a lady move in front of her in line at Kohl's (a store in the Cincinnati area...don't know where else Kohl's stores are)
Every day, a lucky customer gets all their purchases free....yep, you guessed it, the move ahead of her lady got all her purchases free. And people spend big buckaroos there getting all their Christmasy gifts and so on. Sad for my friend who bought lots of gifts and had to pay for them herself, while the other woman didn't even acknowledge her or say thanks, or anything after all the hoopla.
Our RAoK is to foster a dog from the local Humane Society while we spend a month in Kauai. We picked her up on Sunday and are completely smitten with her. We are working on potty skills and basiic commands, and socializing her with men. She is an affectionate and loving companion. Our hope is to find her a forever home before we return to the mainland. I can send photos and more info if anyone can help with her placement. She is 3.5 yo, spayed, 10 pound "Poi" dog (mixed breed, probably Dachsund, Chihuauhua, and maybe a little mini-pin.)
I don't know if this is an RAoK or a giant step towards the downward spiral of animal hoarding, but my husband and I are taking in 2 horses whose owner no longer has the money to feed adequately. This brings our animal count up to....21? It's mostly healthy indoor/outdoor cats, y'all, so don't go calling the SPCA or anything. And we do know a little about horses, seeing as we already have 2 that came with the farmhouse (i.e were abandoned by previous owner, much to our surprise.) All our pets are rescues, we can't help ourselves.
I was sitting in doc office with my son and I jumped up and held the door open for a poor old soul who was struggling with the door and her walker. I have also made an extra effort, due to the emotional stress that I'm going through (divorce), to be kinder and more patient with everyone I come in contact with. I TRY to smile when I really don't feel like it...
Such a small thing, but I paid for the people behind me in the Starbucks drive-up line yesterday. I also gave up a close-in parking space in the insanely busy Target shopping center yesterday and parked in the boondocks.
Is it okay if you feel a little sad over your RAoK? We talked about going to DC to spend Christmas but ding dang work wants me to make an appearance Christmas evening. Which really means working into the wee hours of the morning of Christmas. So, we decided not to go. Well, low and behold some friends of ours who we have spent Christmas with several times over the years, and have had a blast, extended an invite for this year. I encouraged Lloyd to go. He really could use a nice break from what has been work that has been very stressful as of late. Put on my happy face and kissed him as he was leaving for the airport Friday evening. (Once the decision had been made that he'd go to DC he also signed up for a chess tournament that was held yesterday in the DC Metro area) He'll return on Wednesday morning. So, yes, a bit sad at being alone for Christmas, but at least he'll be back. My sadness for my selfishness pales in comparison to the pain I feel for my brothers family this holiday and all families that have suffered a loss of a loved one.
I have some sweet neighbors who are wonderful parents to a developmentally delayed 5 year old boy. A few days ago they welcomed a new daughter and she is not doing well. Her arrival into the world was very tenuous. They've been spending all their time at the hospital and so tonight I finally noticed their car in the driveway and I raced over with a home cooked dinner. They were super appreciative.
