Very cool story. With only 30 minutes left in today, I'll try to do something nice for someone tomorrow.
I'm getting my coffee at Weaver Street market this morning, just like every other morning. I go to get in line, and each line is looooong. Not a big deal. I get in line and the woman in front of me notices that all I have is coffee. She has a cart full of groceries, and two cute kids, and says, "All you have is coffee? - please get in front of me". I say thanks and I do so (I do the same thing there for other folks frequently - it is pretty much the norm at WSM).
Then the person in front of me finishes their order and the total is something over $200 for a very few groceries. There obviously was a probelm with the transaction and it seems it will be a while longer as the cashier tries to find out the problem. Not a huge concern to me, I'm under no real time pressure. But then I hear the woman behind me say to the cashier, "This guy in front of me is going to go ahead and leave - I'll be paying for his coffee." I turn around to look at her and she says, "I just made up a new holiday - today is national do something nice for somebody day". I smiled, said "thank you so much", and went on upstairs to work.
A small coffee at WSM is $1.63. She and I (and I think her kids as well) got way more what-a-great-way-to-start-the-day value than that. It was a real bargain.
So, do something nice for somebody today.
Very cool story. With only 30 minutes left in today, I'll try to do something nice for someone tomorrow.
Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!
Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
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Nice.
And your story makes me miss Weaver Street Market and Elmos right behind there.
~rthomas
That's a nice story.
I bought a cup of coffee for a homeless guy yesterday in Starbucks. Seemed the real value was him getting to get out of the cold and read free newspapers for a few hours. Everyone else in line was gushing about how nice it was, which honestly surprised me (didn't think it was a big deal, it was like 2 bucks), but did make me feel good.
Also paid for a woman's groceries down in Virginia on Thanksgiving day last year. She was picking up stovetop dressing, some canned gravy, and... those premade starbucks coffee drinks. Her debit card was rejected and she had no cash (fairly poor area in Newport News). I asked the clerk to add it to my bill (like $18).
So the trend here seems to be coffee makes people do nice things!
Carr Mill Mall in Carrboro (the original Elmo's is in Carrboro - the one in Durham opened a few years after the one in Carrboro).
W.S.Market takes up the front half of Carr Mill Mall. Elmo's is on the back. The interior is full of speciality shops and the upstairs is offices. A nice re-use of an old textile mill, similar in concept and execution to Brightleaf Square.
By June my office will move out of Carr Mill and either back onto unc's campus or to an office buiding in Chapel Hill instead of here in Carrboro. l will really miss getting my morning coffee at Weaver Street - not only is the coffee good, but the folks brighten my day each morning.
Good stuff, folks. Thanks for sharing. And Mr. Ozzie is a helluva good guy.
^^^^
I actually know a guy who is homeless and sleeps in the woods near Rex Hospital in Raleigh. Sometimes, when I'm heading to the hospital, I'll see him sitting there in his wheelchair, asking for money. It does break my heart. I do give him money when I see him. He and I have become friends over time. A year ago, I was heading to the hospital and I saw that the Raleigh cops had busted his hideout and asked him to leave, and I went and cried my eyes out.
Let's all remember that, yeah, if you give him a quarter, he may not exactly go and buy a paper and look for a job, but when push comes to shove, he's in those woods at night when we're in a house with four walls and a roof over our head to keep that cold rain away.
Anyway, I do love the guy and I wish he didn't have to sleep out there, or that he didn't have the disorder that he does, or that he didn't have to go through what he's going through. I can't judge where he is or why he's there, but I do want to at least help make him a little more comfortable. He did say he'd like a sandwich so I'll get him one next week maybe.
dukestheheat.
Nice story - sometimes the simplest of gestures can be very rewarding.
I am curious: Isn't Carrboro dangerously close to that area whose inhabitants have a tendency to prefer a much paler shade of blue?? Aren't you afraid you might catch something??
k
A lady that sits several seats over from us was trying to get to her seat when her tub of popcorn slipped from her hand and the popcorn went flying. She looked absolutely disgusted. A man in the row in front of her, also heading to his seat, handed her his popcorn and insisted she take it when she politely refused. I thought, that was a very nice gesture. Then, I saw his hat read UK and his t-shirt read UK2K. I tapped him on the shoulder (he was sitting in front of us) and said, "I never thought I'd see a Kentucky fan do something like that for a Duke fan!" He responded, "We have to look out for each other!" Turns out he and his friend were up from Atlanta (his friend in a Ga Tech polo) to see their first game in Cameron. The UK guy said he had gone to the UK/Vanderbilt game recently and now he was in Cameron and he was just blown away and so excited. He asked us if we came to all the games, I told him I'd been coming to them all my life. He thought that was great. Not sure who he was pulling for, I think he's just a big college bball fan, but he was clapping at every one of Kyle's crazy 3s last night. His friend wasn't so impressed with the game, understandably, but he seemed to thoroughly enjoy the Bouncing Bulldogs!
So, I have to admit, that Kentucky fan was a very nice guy.
My family dentist is a rabid UK fan, so I never miss an opportunity to wear a Duke sweatshirt and/or make some kind of Laettner comment whenever I visit.
Of course, in the rare instances when the office visit may involve some sharp, quickly rotating instruments stuck into my mouth, I do scale back my comments and attire.
k