December 1st

It has been brought to my attention that I have not been blogging as much recently (thanks, carm). So I will. In fact, I am going to challenge myself to blog every day in December.

I need to blog. And the December blogs will have a purpose. I am going to blog about things that:

1. make me happy

2. have made 2010 an amazing year

3. I learned in 2010

4. demonstrate the magic of the Christmas season/the magic of the world.

For Tonight's Installment, I will tell you some amazing stories about the Kindness of Strangers.

Story #1: Mom's Wallet

Last weekend, my mom came to visit. We had a very lovely time (I still feel bad that Sunday we started to watch a movie and I completely passed out nap-style almost as soon as the movie started-- sorry, mama, you have more energy than I do. Always!) and Sunday evening, I dropped her off in BUSY downtown chinatown DC so she could catch her bus. It hurt my tummy to leave her there but there wasn't any other option. Her bus was supposed to come at 7:45pm. It didn't come until 9:00! Then I got a phone call from her at 10:45 from Richmond. She didn't have her wallet. NOOOO. Panic set in me immediately. I called, I texted, I looked up phone numbers for every place we went that day. I retraced our steps. You had it after IKEA because you used your card at the grocery store... your purse fell off the chair at Kate's house, maybe it's there... But it wasn't anywhere. My mom finally made it back to Newport News and I talked to her on the phone until she was in my stepdad's car. Then at 12:30am, I got another call from Mom. When she got back to the house in Chesapeake, there was a message on the answering machine from the DC metro police department. Someone had found the remnants of my mom's wallet on the street in DC (we assume that somehow it fell out of her purse and someone snatched it) and turned it into the police. I went down to the DC police station at about 1:30am to get it.

**This is not a great story. A wallet was stolen. Credit cards were taken out. Fortunately, there was only one small $7 charge to McDonald's. So, we are choosing to look at it this way:

1. A Kind Stranger could have thrown away my mom's wallet (with her SS card, School ID card, grocery store cards, Movie tickets, Old family pictures, Gift cards, etc, etc) but they gave it to the police because there was still some good stuff in it.

2. My mom "gave" someone a meal who probably needed it.

3. They took $100 in cash... and I am choosing to believe it was for Christmas presents for other people.

Story #2: Dad's Cell Phone

Right around Veteran's Day, my dad and brother were traveling up to DC to go to a CAPS game. As they were traveling (and I was at work), I got a phone call from my dad's cell. I was able to check it 2 hours later during my lunch. This was the message. "Hi Cait, this is Chris. I found this cell phone in the parking lot of the Harris Teeter off Ferrell Parkway in Virginia Beach. I am turning it in to the Customer Service desk." My jaw dropped. First, I called my stepmother so she would know/could go get it. Then I called my brother's cell phone and it turned out that I actually Told my dad that he lost it! (he didn't know) Dads are so cute. :) What a lovely act from a Stranger. Pay it forward. If you ever find a cell phone, do what that guy did!

Story #3: The Accident

A few Christmases ago, my mom was driving on her lunch hour to go pick up a gift for my Stepdad. She was traveling down the road and someone sideswiped her and drove off. To compensate, she veered into the other lane, sending another car into the metal guardrail. Of COURSE, my mom stopped ahead and came back, feeling HORRIBLE. Apologizing all over the place and trying to explain that she was sideswiped. Then she saw a man on the other side of the guardrail stop his car (he was going in the opposite direction), climb over the guardrail and wait for the cops to come so he could tell the cops that he saw someone sideswipe my mom. My mom was so touched by this random act of Kindness that she said, "Why on earth would you do that for a complete stranger?" He said, "My wife is in labor at the hospital right now and I am on my way there, but I couldn't bring my baby into the world knowing that I could have helped someone but didn't." Amazing.

December 1st... here's the beginning of the Christmas cheer... May your days be merry and bright.

see you tomorrow :)