Thursday, April 30, 2009

Yesterday was Michaels senior design presentation at the u. He did a fabulous job. I am so incredibly proud of him!! I forgot my camera (but, hey I remembered the two kids). Luckily Kaylee came and took tons of pictures that I think she will post on her blog, I can't wait to see them.
On our way home we had to stop to pay for our parking. As I pulled up to the booth I realized that I had set my diaper bag in the back of the Yukon as I was putting my stroller in. I asked the parking attendant if I could run to the back of the car to get my money. As I did I saw a car pull up behind me. Okay, I thought, I need to hurry. Diapers were flying all over the front seat as I frantically was looking for my wallet. No luck, I could not find it anywhere. I looked in my center console and found enough quarters to make up $2.50 but I needed $4.00. I told the parking attendant my delima and he said he could make me up an IOU ticket saying I needed to pay the $1.50 within a week . Okay, I thought, just write one of those up as fast you can and let me get out of here. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the line now had about 5 cars in it. I can't even imagine how annoyed they all were with me. Then the attendant asked me if I had any photo I.D. on me. Oops, that was in my wallet, wherever that was. So he pulled out a camera, stepped out of his booth and walked around to the back of my car to take a picture of my license plate. How humiliating!! He then wrote up my IOU handed it to me and asked for the $2.50. As I was trying to give it to him as fast as I could, one of the quarters slipped out of my hand and fell under my seat. I think the attendant wanted me out of there as bad as I wanted get out. He smiled at me and said, "I'll donate a quarter to you." I smiled back at him sheepishly and quickly drove away.
Well... today I went to the U to pay my $1.50. I went up to the desk and told the receptionist my name and what I was there for. She looked through all of her IOU stubs and couldn't find mine. She then had me write my name down and she went to the back of the building. She came back with another man who told me the reason they could not find my stub. He said is was because the car behind me asked the attendant what was going on with the black Yukon. The attendant told him and the man offered to pay my $1.50. Huh? So he wasn't incredibly annoyed with me. I was so touched by this strangers kindness. I doubt that the $1.50 meant to much to that stranger, but it meant the world to me. I wish I could tell him that his action helped to remind me of the kind of person I want to be and of life that I want to be leading. Thank-you my anonymous donor.

P.S. my wallet was in my purse at home. what a silly place to keep it, huh?

6 comments:

Chris and Aubrey said...

What a wonderful person to help you in your time of need. That is a neat story. Glad you had a good time with Mike. I am so proud of him. Love Aubs

eve said...

woot woot! you are awesome, mikey! we want to come to your graduation, if possible..
erin i love you to death. i am glad you remembered to bring both the girls.
i am so happy the car behind you paid your IOU, that is great. it's just a nice story to the rest of us, but i know it must have been a big impact to you & i can imagine how great you felt.
thanks for sharing.

Shay said...

That is awesome!!! We have ahad friends do that for us in Maine when you have to pay at the toll.
Miss you guys and wish we could have been there!

The Whitaker Family said...

I absolutely cannot believe they would go to SO much trouble to get $1.50 from you-- WOW! And double wow on the nice person behind you. I want to be like that too! Poor Erin..... that's a tough, un-fun situation to be in. Glad everything else that day went well!

halley said...

I love reading your Blog you always makes me smile!! Hope all is well you your little family!!

Unknown said...

Aw, Erin, I can totally see you frantically throwing stuff around the car. Was Emery asking what you were doing? I'm glad that the guy behind you helped you out. A friendly reminder that there are kind people out there :)

Love you! Miss you!
Sara in Colorado