Paying it forward.

Last Thursday we had a crazy experience with our fire alarms; specifically that they were going off and it was rather...well, alarming. We had been warned that the fire marshal would be coming that day to test all the alarms and that he would need access to our apartment. What we didn't realize was that every, single alarm in the building would be set off at the same time, and that they would continue to blare for over an hour! So J took some time off work to rescue T, B and C and whisk us away to Stacks for brunch (this exciting event started at about 9 am PST). As we were finishing our meal, our waitress (who, by the way, we had been most irritated by throughout the entire meal) informed us that our bill had been taken care of by "an angel." We were shocked and a bit confused. We thought maybe our waitress was more than a bit confused. But it was true, a perfect stranger had paid for our meal completely anonymously. We were touched by this gesture, and T wanted to spread the joy and pay for the table next to us whose tab would have been similar (a grandmother, mother and child). But there was such a commotion over this, and the "angel" appeared and told T that she wanted to pay for our meal because she thought we had such a lovely family and to just enjoy it and to pay it forward in the future. So on Saturday, we finally made use of the wonderful gift card that T's parents sent to J for his birthday and went out to dinner (not a usual occurrence now that we have two small children, one of them being a very boisterous toddler...but we're not naming names here). At the end of the meal we decided to take the opportunity to pay it forward, but we could not afford to pay for any of the tabs (lots of groups on a Saturday). In the end we told our waiter that we wanted to buy the desert "trio" for the table across from us (a woman and three children) and would he please tell them that someone bought their dessert for them once they were closer to finishing their meals. We had such a wonderful time doing this and it really ended up costing us so little, we wonder why its never occurred to us to do this before! For less than $10 we probably made their evening (or at the very least, gave them a sugar rush) and it brightened our whole day. In fact, we had planned to stop for ice cream on our way home, but we were so smitten with ourselves, and with the whole human race, that we decided just to go home and cuddle up with some cartoons. So we actually probably saved money that night! And what was so amazing to us was the obvious impact it had on our server, and the servers at the breakfast place previously. The feeling of good will was infectious and you just get the idea that everyone involved (as well as some innocent bystanders) walked away from the experience with a renewed sense of faith in our fellow citizens and a smile in their hearts. It was a really big event for us, one that won't be forgotten soon and will probably be repeated many, many times.