the kindness of strangers

It is hard to get out of the house after Gus wakes up from his nap. He would much rather stay at home and read or play than go to the park or for a bike ride. This makes last-minute, pre-dinner errands extremely painful, so we mostly stay put. But this afternoon I needed to go to Sue's to get some fruit (all we have is a half bag of prunes) and I wanted to stop and get an instant-read meat thermometer because we are grilling now and Jonathan is terrified of undercooked meat. I did not feel like partaking in the battle, which can take up to an hour or so, that it always is to get out the door, so I hatched a fool-proof plan. I simply said, "Gus, do you want to go get a slushie?" I know, it sounds like bribing, but it really is not since I did not put any conditions on it. As you might imagine his response was instant cooperation.

So we headed to Rita's, the whole time talking about how good slushies are (they call them water ices here) and what color Gus was going to get (green.) When we got to the window, there was a huge picture of a green water ice, but not a single green flavor on the menu which changes frequently. After much explaining, Gus finally accepted that there was no green water ice, despite the picture which he kept pointing to, and settled on pink (strawberry). I ordered the kiddie size and ever so discreetly asked the server to only fill it half-way, reached into my bag for my wallet . . . and no wallet (I had left it on my desk)!!!! I thought, "@#$*!!! This kid is going to go ballistic. This is what I get for trying to pull a sugary short-cut to get out the door."

I called for the server to stop the order. I could see Gus's mind processing what was happening. We were seconds from the melt down when suddenly I hear from the man ordering at the window next to ours, "How much is the kiddie cup? Yeah, I'll get that for them." Oh, man that was the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me. Tomorrow I will do like twenty mitzvahs in return. I said "Thank you so much. You just saved me." He really did, not just from a tantrum, but more importantly from discrediting myself with Gus. Walking home, with Gus eating his slushie in the stroller, and poor, slush-less Theo along for the ride, I felt so happy, even though there would be no meat thermometer, and only prunes for breakfast.

So here's the kicker. When I went to get my wallet off my desk it was not there. It must have been in my bag and I was pickpocketed, like in Oliver (that always pops into my head when I think 'pickpocket'). I informed Jonathan, imagining us getting to work canceling credit cards, etc., but he doubted my wallet could be lifted from my bag. We started looking for it. We found it. In my bag, in the other compartment. I cannot even blame my ditziness on a lack of sleep. Theo has slept until morning a record four nights in a row!

Whattaday. Now, to see if I can get that slushie off Gus's shirt.