little acts o' kindness

This week $$$ is tight . No shocker there...it seems to always work out that-a-way the week of payday. So first, I decided to allow myself a mere 50cents for breakfast money...that would be my cup of java (out of the office Keurig) and I would gnosh on some of the 100 year old graham crackers I have squirreled away in my desk. At the last minute though, I decided to be a smidge splurgier and shell out $1.50, by hitting up Dunkin' Donuts for one of their 99cent "wake-up wraps" ..then go forward with the Keurig coffee as previously planned.

My anecdote would, at this point, greatly benefit from a map. I am going to pop on over to MS Paint and bang one out. Please stand by...

Wow, that took me quite some time for such a shitty lookin' end result. Anywhoo... back to my tale.

I take the legit route into the drivethru, offa Rte. 12A, through the DD parking lot. I'm just to the point where a "back door" drive cuts into the drive thru. It's a handy thing (this rear entry) if you're coming from Benning (and pretty necessary as it would be such a pain to have to go to the lights and turn into 12A traffic ) , but if you're already in the drivethru line it's kinda vexing. It's like cutting in line. I'm generally pretty patient, but this a.m., when this green sedan starts nosing down that drive, I wasn't really in the mood to let 'em in, mostly because I was running late for work. But then I recognize the driver--Oh, it's Barb from Accounting!! And I say to myself, "Well, if I'm terribly late for work, I will blame Barb." So I wave her ahead of me.

So, I've put my window down, because it's shaping up to be a lovely warm day already (got up into the 90s today!!) And I'm being a nosey-ass, and listening to what Barb is ordering, not that I have to strain my cochleas that much, because she's doing a lot of yelling and repeating because the DD drivethru crew were having some hearing and/or comprehension difficulties. So consequently, I catch 2 of her 3 hollers of "I'm going to get the lady behind me as well!!" WICKED NICE, EH??

So I know before I order she's very graciously picking up my tab. Now for some reason, I immediately am mindful to act as if I am totally in the dark about this. I don't know why...it's not as if Barb is watching me. Perhaps I didn't want to lessen the thrill of the DD staffer who got to deliver the news, I dunno. Ok, well I have a good theory. And it shows what a weird and twisty psyche I have. Now, when I got to the speaker...do you think I ordered my 99cent Wake-up Wrap?? No siree Bob. I ordered the #3-- med coffee & a Sausage, Egg & Cheese Croissant (even though this about the messiest drive-thru b-fast grub imaginable...and I happen to have spent a good 20 minutes attacking my keyboard with the 3M canned air on Friday). So here we get to the weird & twisty: I consciously took advantage of Barb's goodwill HOWEVER, if I maintained a good enough act of possessing no prior knowledge (ostensibly making any advantage-taking inadvertant) then that would somehow alleviate my guilt? It shouldn't work, but it did. I was grinning ear to ear when I left DD, thinking:" This sure as hell beats stale(ish) graham crackers"

When I met up with Barb at the office door, I exclaimed "You're TOO SWEET!! Thank you so much!!" which she answered with a genuinely puzzled "Huh?" And I said "My breakfast" gesturing with my coffee & croissant-bearing paper sack. She didn't know it was me! (I'd presumed she did) And she's all "Oh, I do that about once a month for somebody." So, Barb is even wicked nicer than I originally posited. It's too bad, I suppose, that it takes a gratis breakfast sammi for me to proclaim that someone is nice. Oh, wellll... if someone had previously asked me about Barb, I would have said she was nice. But I guess I just wouldn't have said so without provocation. Just goes to show you the power of a goodwill gesture. (TANGENT: Reminds me of when I first met one of my besties, Roxanne. I was working at GDT and they had me help train a couple of new people. I'm truly BAFFLED as to why since I was pretty crappy at that job. But anyways...Rox was one of my trainees, and when she was out of her training period, they stationed her in a cubicle across the aisle from me. I thought she seemed nice enough, but I had no intention of befriending her. Then one day, I come back from lunch and there is a coffee cake sitting on my desk. Just out of the f-king wild blue yonder, someone has bought for me a cake. And, Reader's Digest version--she's been one of my best buds ever since)

I was telling my sis about this croissant windfall (highlight of my damn day prob'ly) and she very practically pointed out how this practice might backfire on Barb big time. I mean, supposin' I was on my way to work at a construction site, and was charged to buy eats for the whole damn crew: 4 boxes of Joe and 3 dozen doughnuts!! That would hurt the ol' wallet , no doubt. Though the accrued positive karma would be terrific...

I sent Barb a follow up thank you email (with a cute little squirrel cartoon in it). I may be a mooch, but I'm no ingrate. Well, maybe mooch is not the right term as I didn't whine & whinge and coerce anyone into footing my breakfast bill. I'm a taker of advantage...a manipulator? There's got to be a smoother way of phrasing it...

Anyways, I do feel a smidge guilty about it now(not the Barb paying part so much as my order switcheroo) Guess I oughtta just "pay it forward" (can't pay a damn thing 'til after Friday though, homies...)