The Kindness of Strangers

I'm interrupting this radio silence to tell you about the crazy-wonderful thing that happend on this crazy-less-then-wonderful day.

As you know Sundays are the only day Chris and I have off together. So we have a regular routine. We go to Babystacks for breakfast and we go have puppy therapy at Petsmart. Every single Sunday.

Well today was different. Today, I cooked breakfast.  ( But we still went to puppy therapy.)

Then we went on a search for a mini fridge.

You see, my first shipment of "MS Therapy" aka Meds arrives on Tuesday. I'm taking Copaxone, a daily injection, and it has to be refridgerated. The fridge that came with our apartment freezes everything and we don't trust that the fridge won't freeze my meds. Plus, our apartment fridge is tiny and there isn't enough room for all our food let alone a 30 supply of auto injectors.

Well we headed to Walmart.( I know, I know.... We are Walmart haters too. But when I was pricing the mini fridges in the area they had the best price. And my meds are EXPENSIVE. So I'm all about saving the $10.)

But the Walmart in our neighborhood doesn't carry mini fridges. So we headed to the Super Walmart across town where I had actually seen said mini fridge.

Also, Chris and I had decided to cash in our change jar today. Our change jar is affectionatly known as the JC Penney Jar because we don't actually save it because we need it. We save it up, and when it gets full we dump in the coinstar for a gift certificate. If you get cash, they charge 9.8% fee. But you can get a gift cert to lots of different places for free. We usually get a JC Penney cert and treat ourselves. Remember back in December when I cashed in my jar and got two pairs of boots, a dress, and a necklace for what felt like FREE to me?

So here's the scene:

Chris and I are standing in line at the Coinstar at the Super Walmart. A hispanic family and a single man with a plastic sack of change are ahead of us. The hispanic family finishes and leaves and the single man deposits his coins.

Chris: Wow. That man stood in this line to get $3.51. Oh wait, he's at $3.62 now.
Me: He probably has to use it to buy bread or baby formula too. I know we complain about our situation but we are far better off than most people.
Chris: Oh I know.
Me: Serious. Our biggest complaint is that we aren't earning enough to save as much as we'd like. I mean we have a few thousand dollars in the bank and sometimes it's not good enough for us.

Then it was our turn. We looked at the gift card options and only restuarants were available. We don't want Olive Garden or Red Lobster gift cards so we put the mug back in my purse and went shopping for the fridge. ( We have some first world problems right?)

Well that Walmart was sold out. Damn.

So rather then drive all over town we headed to Target. Damn the $10 difference, I need my fridge.

Target was out as well.

So I quite literally stood in the middle of the aisle at Target and said " Okay universe, you win. I concede and am going home."

So we headed home. And we stopped at our neighborhood Albertsons to deposit the coins.

Albertsons doesn't have a Coinstar. Damn again.

But we knew Von's did and as we walked back to the car we discussed how today was going all wrong because we skipped going to Babystacks. This is why routines are so important and we fucked ours up so the universe was having it's way with us.

... and we headed across Lake Mead Blvd to the Vons.

We looked through the certificate options: iTunes, Amazon, JC Penney, The Gap, Carraba's. We selected Amazon because we figured we could order the mini fridge and have it delivered.

Chris drops in the coins.

I stand there with my hands on my hips.

As we are watching the total rack up I feel something poke me in the palm of my left hand.

I look down.

There is a $20 bill in it.

And an older lady shuffling past us.

I was so stunned. And because when I felt the palm poke I said "What the Fuck?" loudly Chris is looking too and he sees that the lady slipped a $20 in my palm as she was leaving the store.



Okay. This kind of thing never happens to us.

Chris and I are the kind of people who do this kind of thing to other people, but it never happens to us. I mean in the last month that I haven't been blogging we spent Easter delivering Easter baskets we made to nurses and paramedics who had to work on Easter Sunday.

We donated 8 soccer balls to a local elementary school because their PE program was down to 2 basketballs for the rest of the year.

We tried to buy a round of drinks for 3 servicemen who were dining in uniform at the same restaurant we were at but they weren't drinking and there check was taking care of.

... but this never happens to us.

And we were both pretty speechless and felt a little awkward. The same pity we had toward the man at Walmart, she had towards us.

Before we even left the coinstar we agreed to pay it forward, even though we know we already do.

$20 plus the $54.76 Amazon certificate pays for the cost of the fridge for my medication. So even though we aren't desperate for cash like she perhaps thought we were, her $20 is going towards an essential purchase.

And we both are still a little speechless about it but we thank her.

Being on the other side of the kind stranger situation is new to us, but makes us want to continue to be kind strangers to others.

And we will be paying it forward.

30's the New 20

Holy Moly I'm 30 years old today.

I sit here drinking my morning smoothie made of flax seed oil, coconut water, yogurt, strawberries and pineapple, using it to wash down my vitamin D supplements, and thinking about how I got so old.

I don't feel old. Unless I'm trying to get out of a chair.

Or get into bed and set the alarm only to realize it's 8 o'clock.

Which I should do tonight because I have a doctors appointment at 7:20 am.

Because only old people go to the doctors at 7:20 am.

But I'm not depressed by turning 30. I really look forward to the next 10 years. When I think about the last 10 years and how much living I packed in.... it's a little overwhelming.

I don't remember what I did for my 20th birthday. I was probably drunk. I remember 19 because it was the day I finished my alcohol awareness class at CWU. I got busted drinking in the dorms and I had attend a little class about why underage drinking is bad. I got on a bus the very next day with my dormmates and headed to Vancouver where the legal drinking age is 19. We stayed in a hostel and partied all weekend. Abby and I pierced our belly buttons and I told this guy named Justin I was in love with him and he said thank you and never spoke to me again.

My 21st birthday was spent very drunk in Bellingham. I only really remember this night because Claire took photos and showed me photographic evidence of the crazy night. I remember going to a bubble party at some bar and at one point there were pictures of me forgetting why my pants are wet and just taking them off. Oh to be young and uninhibited again....

... and then Chris came into the picture. And we started travelling. Our birthday's are only a week apart so we would travel somewhere together as a co-birthday celebration. Las Vegas one year, New York City the next.

And even though I'm not where I thought I would be at 30, ( let's face it, I'm not where I thought I would be 6 months ago) I did finally move out of Kitsap County.  So I can check "Move to Big City" off the life list.

So here is my 30th Birthday Progress Report.  You may not care but I feel like I should make a list of my notable life moments over the last 10 years. I'm setting the bar so my 30's can be even better :)

• At 20 I was a college drop out. At 30 I have 2 college degrees.
• I met the love of my life. He has amazingly put up with me everyday for the last 9 years.
• I watched my sister give birth to my nephew Ryan.
• I went from twirling batons in high school to twirling myself around a stage in front of 600 people.
• I have seen countless concerts from Brad Paisley to Korn to Huey Lewis.
• I have seen dozens of live musicals and plays from Seattle to Broadway.
• I took Chris to the Washington coast for the first time. We also went to the sunny beaches of Florida together for the first time.
• I moved to a big city :)
• I have changed the lives of children.
• I helped organize a Pride Festival in Kitsap County.
• I took classes with Miss Indigo Blue and learned to twirl nipple tassels :)
• I started an online book club that has amazingly reunited lots of old friends.
• I had the funnest wedding in history. We had sno-cones.
• I sold all my belongings and started over.

And I started this blog. Which had been incredibly cathartic. It helps me feel connected to all of you who I live so far from.