No. 8

1. At Job #1 we tend to get lots of customers from Britain. Perhaps Bucktown is the British neighborhood of Chicago; who knew. Anyway, I really do love them and their insistence on certain brands of tea, possibly because the part of my heritage I most identify with is the English portion, to whom I attribute my freckly skin, the awful dental situation of my youth (thanks, braces), and my enjoyment of a good melancholy.

Today one of the Brits came in, a very lovely older man who has taken to drinking iced coffees. While retrieving his beverage, I noted that we were out of lids for iced drinks, leaving me with only one option of giving him one of those obnoxious dome-lids only needed for obnoxious drinks with lots of whipped cream business on the top.

"Would it bother you if I gave you a domed lid?" asked I.

"Bother me? It would delight me!" Mr. Lovely Brit answered. Since I can think of 10 regular customers off the top of my head who would have probably threw the lid in my face (this is seriously what some people consider the proper response to an adverse situation--like having to use a different kind of lid than they're used to), I appreciated his response so much I wanted to hug him.

2. This afternoon on the bus ride home, it started raining right in the middle of my ride--very hard in fact. As we approached a stop I saw a lady on the other side of the street, clearly needing to catch the 49 on which I was happily (and dryly) riding. I thought "Please see her, bus driver," as the woman tried to dodge four lanes of traffic to make the bus.

My telepathy clearly worked, as the kind bus driver indeed saw her, signaled that the bus would wait, and proceeded to wait a good two minutes for this woman to make her way to the other side of the street without getting smashed by a car. She seemed so grateful to make her bus, grateful for the shelter from the rain pellets, and I was grateful to have her on the bus because she kind of smelled like lilies.

3. The grace of two very charitable people saved the day/life this afternoon. I have not been feeling very dependable lately, nor very competent in doing my job or other major aspects of living, and I feel like I've been letting a lot of people down who depend on me. This makes me feel sad, but somewhat helpless. Today I was shown mercy from an authority at work and a friend, and it inspired me to be more easily forgiving when others let me down.