So I bitch and blog a lot about ridiculous or unpleasant stuff that happens at my work. Well, for a nice change of pace, I have a happy story!
The scene is Saturday night at work. It's relatively quiet for a weekend night in the summer time. School is out for me at the moment so I am catching up on some pleasure reading (vs school reading. I am one of those people who is terrified of somehow pushing out knowledge so I don't read for fun during the school semester). Normally when I am on my laptop at work, I will hide out in our back office which is equipped with lots of security cameras so I don't miss anything but I am away from immediate prying eyes. I can see if a guest comes up to the desk, who is coming or going, and if there are any shenanigans going on upstairs. Since I was devouring "Doomed" by Chuck Palahniuk, one of my favorite authors, I was sitting at the front desk for most of the evening.
Around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, this guy begins walking up the stairs to his room but I notice his t-shirt. It's an Alkaline Trio shirt. They were playing a 4-day show this weekend that my friend and I were debating going to for many weeks. They were playing their entire discography but we had no idea what they were playing on what night so we never committed to getting tickets and I ended up working Friday and Saturday night as usual. Well, I complimented this guy on his shirt and he stopped dead and looked really surprised! He said he could wear this shirt anywhere and no one would say anything about it. He had just gotten back from the evening's show. I told him my story and asked them what they played. In turn, he told me his story; they had originally gotten tickets for Sunday night's show but his girlfriend had just gotten a new job and she started on Monday. This couple had driven all the way from Arizona to Southern California to come see Alkaline Trio.
He goes up to his room and both he and his girlfriend come back down after a short while and they present me with their two Sunday night tickets! They said they couldn't resell them at the venue and they would rather the tickets go to someone who was going to genuinely enjoy the show. Fortune smiles upon me! I was really taken back by how kind they were (obviously they weren't native to Southern California...) I gave them both a big hug and offered them some free beers and without mentioning also comped their parking. I couldn't get away with too much and it was something and parking at our property alone was almost the price of a ticket....
The show was really great; I've never seen Alkaline Trio live before. They played their album Crimson which is one of my favorite of theirs. Thank you Universe for putting me somewhere where I would encounter some really generous and thoughtful people.
What's been a totally random act of kindness that someone bestowed upon you?
