Walmart Kindness

I don't really like Walmart. Sometimes I am a terrible person though and shop there.

Anyway...

On Tuesday night I go to my friends' house and spend the night so that I can get up early and go to Carmel to nanny 2  children for twelve hours. This is not a normal nanny job. The mother is there. I am there because she has epilepsy. This means in addition to watching the children, I am also driving them wherever they need to go and helping with house work. After that I go back to my friends' house, sleep another night, then get up early and do it all again for another twelve hours.

Yesterday after I finished my second 12 hour day for the week which consisted of screaming children, potty training, cleaning up soiled children and their clothes, vacuuming, mopping, taking down a Christmas tree, etc, I had to pick up dog food on my way home. The closest store on my way home that was still open and had it was Walmart.

As soon as I walked in I saw a former refugee client that gave me quite a bit of trouble (one example- calling me on a day off leaving a message that it was an emergency for me to find out they simply wanted to find out how to get cable tv and knew I would only answer on my day off if they said it was an emergency...this is the same family that had their neighbor call and yell at me that they were starving and had no money for food and I was doing nothing to help them...). So I went in the complete opposite direction I needed to and luckily avoided her seeing me.

Then when I walked to the checkout 3 lines were open, insanely long lines. This led me to think..."hmmm...a bottle of wine would be a very nice thing considering all of this to take home for me and my roomies." Went back all the way to the back of the store to the alcohol section only to see a sign stating "Looking for wine? For your convenience we have moved our wine to our new liquor store at the front of the store." Convenience? Ha. Went to the front, didn't see a liquor store, gave up, got in super long line.

I know what you're thinking. "Jill, this is a lot of complaining. I thought this blog was supposed to be inspirational." Well, you are right. I feel this long, drawn out description of the woefulness of my day is necessary for you to see why this "little thing" that happened meant so much. So here it is...

Shortly after getting in line a worker came out and told 3 of us in line that had only a couple things that she would take us at the jewelry counter. The other 2 had been in line in front of me, but let me go first because I had less items than them. And the worker told us she was about to get off, but came out of the bathroom and saw the long line so decided to do this real quick before going home. These little sacrifices these people made that really didn't take much effort on their part, but are things many people wouldn't do, meant a lot to me that day. It helped me to get home a little earlier, boosted my faith in humanity a bit, made me stop being annoyed, and made me get over feeling sorry for myself.

So next time you can go out of your way a little bit for someone else, do it. You never know the day they had and how it might help them and make them feel.

Nannying

I am now nannying for 2 families. While I haven't posted on here lately and can't really think of specific "little-big" moments lately, I believe due to needing to reconnect with a lot of things (mostly myself), I am seeing how I come to notice and feel this way about the "little-big things." I point out the little things to the kids- how the shadows get bigger and smaller depending on how close to the light the object is, a bird's nest in a tree, a hot-air balloon floating through the sky,a squirrel scurrying up a tree, the light reflecting off of something and making rainbows on the wall, etc. I don't normally think twice about it. Just comes naturally for me, but sometimes I realize that the things I point out to them are things a lot of people would just overlook. It comes so naturally to me though because my mom and grandma always did that with me. They taught me to notice and appreciate these things. So I guess, we can thank them for this blog. :)

A Dog's Reflection

The other day I was stopped at a red light and beside me was a man in a car with his dog in the passenger seat. Where he was parked there was a window on a building on the other side. What made me notice this man and his dog is that the dog started barking. When I realized why the dog was barking I started laughing. The dog was barking at his reflection in the window. The owner of the dog started laughing too. He pulled up a little so the dog couldn't see the window anymore and the dog stopped barking and acted as though nothing happened. The man never noticed me, but we were both still chuckling as the light turned green.

Funny Mailman

Yesterday I got the mailbox keys for some of my clients and was filling out the paper inside the mailbox so the mailman knows they are no longer vacant. The mailman was there when I did this and started talking to me about how the mailbox works and where to mail letters out, etc. Before we parted ways he said "Do you have time for a joke?" I said "Of course." He said "it's corny." I said "My favorite kind." His joke: "Where were the first french fries made...?"
Me: "I don't know, where?"
The answer: "In Grease"
Ha.

Hope In The Social Security Office

I work with refugees so I am often at the social security office. You can imagine that this is a boring place often with a lot of frustrated people. But everyonce in awhile something small happens that restores my faith in humanity (what this blog is devoted to really) and the other day something happened at the social security office that brought tears to my eyes. An older woman came in and started to sit down. About 3 people told her that she needed to get a number first and 2 of the 3 got up to help her figure out the touch-screen. The woman who helped her didn't stop there though, she sat down with her and helped her fill out the application for a new social security card. People could have ignored this woman, let her figure it out herself, let someone else do it, but a few different people (different types of people too) took the time to help someone different than them that didn't even ask for the help.

The First 3 Letters Of Your Name

"To the young lady I met on Wednesday, I was very pleased to meet you. I would very much like to see you again. Please write the first three letters of your name on this note if you feel the same. -Charles"

I found this on a note taped to a telephone pole in my neigborhood.

Superman

There's a little boy on my street who everytime I see him he is in a Superman costume.