Good Deeds

I realize that much of the blogs I post are about annoying or strange things that happen to me or that I see around. Today I'd like to share something positive.

I remember back in the day when we were traveling back and forth to college in downstate Michigan, Lana used to pay for the car behind us when we'd cross the Mackinac bridge. People were always so appreciative, and I'm sure she got some good karma out of that, as well as just feeling good about making another person feel good. I always thought it was a pretty neat thing to do, anyway. :)

Well, somebody did a similar thing for me the other day, at a McDonald's drive thru.

So, to make a short story long:

A couple of days ago, I had a hankering for a soda as I was running around doing some errands. So I pulled in to the McDonald's off Clark and Ashland in Andersonville, which is a busy area, traffic-wise. Total cluster-bleep, actually, lol. You can enter the drive-thru from either side; either from Clark or Ashland (parallel streets), however that day the line was quite long and everyone in line was coming from the Clark side. There's more room on that side to form a line...on the Ashland side it is sort of an awkward angle to pull up to make an order.

Anyway as I pulled up, another guy had pulled in from the Ashland side. He was technically there before a lot of the people in front of me. But because he wasn't quite "in line," and it was taking forever, no one let him in when it really should have been his turn. Three cars went by without letting him in. I was only there to get a small Sprite; so I wasn't too excited to wait in line for ten minutes. But I was feeling nice and I know it is frustrating when no one lets you in. Don't get me wrong, I'm no saint - I've done the exact same thing as those other drivers did - thinking, "Hey, you're trying to creep in, and I don't feel like waiting behind another vehicle, so I'm just going to pretend you don't exist and stay bumper-to-bumper with the car in front of me." Anyone who drives in Chicago, or anywhere, really, has been ticked when they can't pull out into traffic because some jerk is too lazy to wait an extra five seconds or chance hitting the light up ahead. Anyway, I digress.

So I let the guy in. No big deal. I waved him by, he waved thanks, and that was the end of it, I thought. Happens every day in this city.

But I was wrong - when I got to the window, the cashier waved me by too, saying the person in the car ahead of me had already paid my bill.

So the extra two minutes I ended up waiting in line paid off - I got my Sprite for free. :)

Funny how sometimes it is the smallest act of kindness from another person that can really make our day. It only saved me a dollar, but I really enjoyed that Sprite. So, thanks Mr. McDonald's-drive-thru-bill-payer-man! :D You rock!