Category Archives: True Life

Sometimes when I’ve finished a workout at the gym, I am so weak and shaky by the time I get back to the locker room that I hope to open my locker and find a snack in there instead of just my towel and shower shoes. I got to thinking that I may not be the only one who’s had that experience, so this morning I left a few goodies for someone to find.

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2181 participants at the time of this posting…I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂

I’m that person. The one who comes home after shopping or dining out and goes to the website specified on my receipt to complete the brief survey for a chance to win a $XXXX shopping spree. I’ve never won. Not one red cent.

But I recently found a way to ensure that someone wins when I do a survey. Every time I complete a brief questionnaire at SurveyMonkeyContribute, fifty cents goes to the charity of my choice.

In the week that I’ve been a member, I’ve completed four surveys. My email inbox is not flooded with survey requests (appropriate surveys are selected for me based on a few basic questions I answered during the registration process) so I don’t feel hassled and harassed. I haven’t done a survey that cost me more than two minutes of my time.

So far, I’ve earned $2.00 for Special Olympics. It’s not a ton of money. But it is $2.00 more than they would have had if I hadn’t done the surveys. It’s a project that I can easily continue for the foreseeable future. It’s a project you could undertake if you have internet access, a few spare minutes a few times a week, and a desire to help others. If your $2.00 and his $2.00 and her $2.00 joined my $2.00, we could really begin to make a difference.

In the words of Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2187 participants at the time of this posting…I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂

As near as I can tell, anyone who joins the security force that mans the front gate of our neighborhood and patrols its streets has agreed to become a community punching bag. It must be in the employment contract that each officer agrees to take the blame (via the neighborhood facebook page):

• any time a resident forgets to call the gate ahead of time to pre-authorize guest access
• any time said resident cannot be reached to give authorization for a guest waiting at the gate
• any time said waiting guest’s car creates a traffic jam at the gate

In addition, every officer apparently also agrees that the following items are his/her fault:

• children wandering the streets unsupervised
• items not turned in to Lost & Found
• children venturing out onto frozen ponds
• dogs barking
• cars speeding and/or running stop signs
• the missing tennis court keys
• noisy neighborhood parties

I’m not saying these folks never make mistakes. We all do. But there are way more things they do right than wrong, and it’s unfair that the focus is only on their rare goof-ups. Why should they want to lift a finger to protect our safety when all they get is a raft of crap for their efforts?

Maybe a thank-you note and a basket of Easter goodies will let them know that their hard work is not unnoticed in the community.

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2237 participants at the time of this posting (the numbers are going down as the challenge moderators weed out duplicate blogs, non-participants, and broken links from the list). I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂

I wasn’t brave enough to wander through a parking lot, tucking flowers under the wiper blades on strangers’ windshields. I figured there was a pretty good chance someone would think I was vandalizing the cars or fixin’ to steal them and would call the cops.

So I opted to leave a bright, happy daisy on all 15 mailboxes on my street. I did not open any mailboxes, merely lashed the flower to the door handle with a rubber band, so hopefully I won’t be arrested for tampering with the mail. I don’t need a new home, new friends, or a new job! 🙂

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2227 participants at the time of this posting…I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂

I hate that I feel like a simple act of compassion is now considered a random act of kindness in our society rather than a typical response upon seeing someone in distress. But that notion was reinforced just this afternoon while I was at work.

I man the front desk of the tutoring center at the local community college. This afternoon, a student came in and sat down in front of me. The way he sank into the chair was my first clue that something was wrong. Then he looked at me with reddened eyes and fought to control the trembling in his lip as he apologetically canceled his appointment for later in the day because “stuff” was going on at home that he needed to take care of. Watching his struggle to keep his composure was torture for me, because I adhere strictly to a no one cries alone policy. Being separated by the desk, I was unable to act on my first instinct to lay a hand on his shoulder (or *gasp* give him a hug). So, blinking furiously and hoping that my voice wouldn’t crack, I did the second thing that came to mind–I asked, “Is there anything we can do?” Of all the things I could have said, this was obviously the last thing he expected to hear; the shock in his eyes was unmistakable.

Why? Why is an offer of compassionate assistance, even from a virtual stranger, so unexpected? What happened to “walk a mile in someone’s shoes” and “do unto others as you would have done unto you”? When did a simple act of human decency become the exception rather than the rule?

I didn’t really expect for the student to answer yes to my question. If he had, I would have certainly done everything in my power to meet his request. But even being 99.9 percent sure he’d say no, it would have been cold and inconsiderate and totally beyond me not to offer aid.

I don’t know if hearing that someone cared helped the student at all. I only know that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep tonight if I hadn’t reached out. I’ll still be worried whether he’s okay as I drift off later, but at least I won’t lie awake regretting that I missed an opportunity to show a little kindness.

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2266 participants at the time of this posting…I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂

Every Sunday, I sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and my blankie, and I read the newspaper. Arguably the best part of the Sunday paper, after the triple sudoku, of course, are the sales ads. Most weeks, tucked between the Kohl’s ad and the Best Buy circular are a couple of packets of coupons. The hubby and I don’t use 80% of the products in the coupons. It seems a shame to throw all those savings in the recycle bin each week.

So for the last two weeks I have clipped the coupons with the biggest savings. Monday after work, I furtively slunk around Walmart, affixing the collected coupons to their respective products. All in all, I left $30 worth of savings opportunities in my wake. Hopefully, my simple little coupon operation will be a welcome surprise to some unexpecting shoppers.

In the future, I’ll be sending my unwanted coupons to our troops overseas, who can use them in the base commissaries even after they have expired. Support Our Troops® has a coupons for the troops program, Troopons®, that simply asks me (and you!) to cut out the coupons, sort them into expired or unexpired, then sort both groups into four main categories before bagging them up and mailing them to the program headquarters for distribution. I’ve seen for myself how much young military families living overseas appreciate these coupons. If you have unwanted coupons and a little extra time, click here to find out how you can get involved with Troopons®.

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2279 participants…I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂

How cool would it be to buy a gift for a complete stranger? A gift that you absolutely knew he or she really wanted? Well, thanks to Amazon.com’s public wish lists, you can! And I did.

There are literally thousands of wish lists on the website, so I had to come up with some way to choose just one. The only way to search for a list is by name or email address. Since April is not only the month when my dad passed away, but also the month he was born, I decided to search for someone who shares his name. I looked through the five pages of John Williams my request turned up, hoping to find one born on April 25. Not every wish list maker shares his/her birthday, so I was limited to only three people who’d posted April birthdays. One was a child (I couldn’t tell how old), and his wish list items were much cooler than the two adults’, so that’s the John William I chose. 🙂

Not wanting to miss young John William’s April 13 birthday, I placed the order for his “Kidnoculars” last week. Of course, because I did not procrastinate, the order arrived at John William’s house about three days later…a full two weeks before his birthday! He loves the binoculars. I know this because his mother took the time to track me down via the internet (Amazon.com didn’t allow me to send my gift anonymously) and sent me a lovely email yesterday.

A wonderful surprise from a kind stranger just arrived for my son John William. (I did a bit of Google searching and found your email address–I hope you don’t mind.) Thank you!! My husband Ben and I are so touched. And John William (we call him by both names), who turns two on April 13th, is thrilled with his new binoculars. He has been practicing bird watching at pre-school and will use them for birding this summer in California with his Opa. 🙂

What a wonderful way to celebrate your father’s memory. I read his obituary, and I’m struck that he died just two months after my own father died, also very suddenly in his 50s. His name was John, and my John William is named for him. He shares his grandfather’s curiosity, adventurousness, and sense of humor. And I’m so glad that he shares his name with another special person, even one we’ve never met. Thank you for connecting them with your random act of kindness.

As I sat at work, smiling through my tears, reading and rereading the unexpected email (a random act of kindness in itself), I knew without a doubt that my plan to defeat April was going to be a smashing success.

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In an attempt to overwrite all the negative feelings I have about April, I have made a pledge to complete 26 random acts of kindness this month. Reporting on these acts is the theme of my participation in this year’s April A to Z Challenge. If what you read here inspires you to commit your own RAoKs this month, please share what you’ve done in the comments. Together, we can rewrite April’s legacy!

If you’d like to check out how some other bloggers are responding to the A to Z Challenge, click here. Beware, there are 2227 participants at the time of this posting…I accept no responsibility for the hours you are likely to lose once you start browsing! 🙂