Go ahead, make my day.

This is a repost of a blog I wrote shortly after Christmas last year. I had no job, no money, and no food. Life was shit. But! Johnny Virgil (if you haven't read his blog, get your ass in gear and do it.) just posted a blog about Best Buy screwing him over (and really, who hasn't had THAT experience?), so I thought I would counter by resending some good retail joo joo (is that really how it's spelled? I'm at a loss on this one...) out there for a different retail establishment. "Bones" was a coworker from the worst job I ever had. More on that later.

A couple of days ago Bones and I were chatting about a website we'd stumbled upon. There were a bunch of pictures of these…well, southern gentlemen (read: rednecks) out digging up artifacts and bragging about them and taking them home. In our world, we call that looting. And it’s deplorable. But before you get all nervous that I’m about to bombard you with archaeology talk, fear not. That is not the point.

The point is this: I said to Bones, “People are horrible, I don’t wanna be one anymore.” But today, something happened to me that made me feel a little bit like people aren’t so bad. Well, at least this one person. We all know by now that I’m not rollin’ in the dough. I just moved, which didn’t help the situation. In fact, I’ve barely left my apartment for the last three days because I didn’t have the money to put gas in my car. But that’s not the point either.

My mom, sweet woman that she is, bought me all this stuff (crap) I didn’t need for Christmas. It was in my “stocking.” We’re talking labels for every cord in my apartment. And both my neighbors’ apartments, too. Do people really have this much trouble with cords? A travel door alarm. I don’t travel. A keychain don’t-rape-me whistle. That might actually be useful in my new neighborhood, but it was like $25. Crazy. Rubber gloves with cuffs. So water doesn’t…something. I don’t know. But they’re made of latex, and I’m allergic. You get the idea. A whole bunch of stuff I have very little use for and no room to store. So I took it back today.

It all came from The Container Store. Have you ever been? I love that place. I can’t afford it, but I love it. Mom had also bought me some kitchen organizing stuff that just didn’t work in my kitchen. So I have all this stuff, but no receipt. The lady at the register said she would have to give me store credit. What could I say? That’s the way it works. I made some joke about how it was too bad they don’t sell gas at The Container Store because I this was the first time I had left my apartment in three days because I couldn’t afford any. And we talked while she rang all my stuff in.

It ended up being like $182. Which would buy me a lot of containers. Well, some containers. Really that place is crazy expensive. So she looked at me and said, “You know what? I’m going to make it cash back.”

Wow. She’s like my new best friend. I’m not supposed to tell anyone, so keep your mouth shut. It was such a nice thing to do. And it probably could get her in some trouble. She stuck her neck out just to be nice to that poor girl who had no gas. And now I have a full tank. And I got groceries! Maybe being a people isn’t so bad…today.

See? Now don't you have the warm fuzzies in your belly about humanity?