And we did it...

So we made a big decision...one we have been sort of, kind of, considering for awhile now and since her hair was finally long enough to donate to a few causes and for less altruistic reasons such as not wanting to have to deal with tangles like this in an already rushed school day morning...

After ONE day of not washing her hair and a bath and bottle of tangle spray later

WE CUT IT! As a prep tactic I had Olivia watch Disney's Tangled last night, talked about all our friends that have cute short hair, and discussed how much it hurts to brush those knots out! She was excited right up until it was actually cut off and then when I saw her face drop I started to panic! Right after I stopped the recording below and she was actually holding her newly cut hair in her hands I could tell she was trying hard not to cry; she also refused to talk to me.

Oh no! What have I done? Will she ever forgive me? Will she now suffer from low self-esteem for a decision I had a hand in helping her to make?

Not to worry - within a few minutes Liv fully recovered, was shaking her head with sass, and telling me 'I talk like a model now' - I think the manicure Michelle, Owner of Elements of Style, graciously threw in helped!

Olivia and I have posted her hair on the Matter of Trust website in the Clean Wave program.

Matter of Trust established the Clean Wave program to provide the public with safe, non-hazardous, volunteer-based solutions and green jobs to help combat major oil spills and common motor oil contamination. Through Clean Wave, Matter of Trust collects hair donations, produces hair 'booms' and mats, and coordinates large-scale efforts to clean contaminated water in rivers, oceans, and storm drains.

The saga continues

Today I planned on taking a lunch break at work and made an appt. to donate blood at 12:45.  I think in my acts of kindness excitement I forgot that I had a one o'clock conference call.  When the scheduling conflict dawned on me I tried to call Red Cross to cancel my appt. so I wouldn't take up a valuable donor spot.  Of course, no answer.  I actually had to drive there to say I wouldn't be there (not to worry they failed to put me in book anyway) and to reschedule for later that evening....Fast forward several hours - blood drive take two.  I read the eligibility book about which I had a gazillion questions, yes I have been to several European countries since 1980, my grandma might be of Hispanic descent since she was an orphan, I don't know if I took something with aspirin in it in the past 48 hrs. (does Ibuprofen have aspirin in it?)....I finally made it to the donation chair...I had read the book, done the screening, got the finger prick and was just calling my husband to verify we were in Costa Rica two years ago and not one when I realized I had forgotten to mention something...I called Joe and when he said we had been to Costa Rica last year I said, "no that can't be right - we wouldn't have gone to Punta Cuna only 4 months after Costa Rica" - oh my I forgot to mention the Dominican trip to my screener and so then I did....and guess what...a big fat DISQUALIFIED. I can't donate until 12 months have passed since our trip due to the chance of me having contracted malaria.

Seriously, why are my acts of kindness so hard to complete?!

So I started early...

Today at Giant Eagle this cute little old lady asked if I could help her reach a bottle of Pantene Pro-V shampoo that was pushed back on the top shelf.  It is not often, being short myself, that I can help someone in this type of situation, but thankfully I was just tall enough to reach. This woman was so grateful.  My first thought was 'damn - too bad my birthday week of kindness didn't start yet' and my next thought was 'well, that really couldn't have counted anyways since she asked for the help - what was I going to say - "no, figure out a way to reach it yourself" - what I did certainly didn't seem to qualify as a random act of kindness, but rather just something anyone would do in that situation. I continued on my way but couldn't quit thinking about how appreciative she was.  And so four or so aisles later I turned back - let me go buy her a flower or something I thought. I ran back to the shampoo aisle, but she was gone.  Darn - a missed opportunity. And then...

Suddenly I saw her - she was in the 12 items or less lane checking out.  I raced up to the counter like a lunatic and told the check-out boy I would pick up her bill (she had the shampoo, a conditioner, and a bag of cough drops).  I was on the opposite side of the aisle from her and I vaguely heard her say something about a book of stamps.  No biggie. Next thing I know the sales boy, Michael, turns to me, points to the total displayed on the register and says, "you still want to pay".... what could he mean, how much could it possibly be - and then I looked...

$114.00

It wasn't one book of stamps, it was 11!!!!!  

Panic set in.  Holy shit, I just paid that much at Marc's for my grocery shopping for the month. What do I do know? Do I look like a total ass if I try to back out?  But I can't afford to give someone $114 and still do the other 32 acts of kidness on my list (strangely enough it was hard coming up with kindness ideas that didn't cost at least a little money).

And then, spoken like a voice from the heavens, Michael gave me an out.  He said, "I'll just charge your card for the groceries ok." And so that is where we left it.

Anna, the lady who I ended up only buying $12 of groceries for was still very grateful.  We got to talking when I asked if I could take her picture to post on my blog and she told me the reason she needed all of those stamps was that she had spent the last 24 years writing her own poetry and sending it out to friends and family.

She asked for my address so that she could send me a birthday wish, an Easter poem, and a picture of baby Jesus for Olivia for Christmas. (She said 'Olivia will like it because she is just a baby too). Too cute!

Note to self- before doing any more acts of kindness  I must remember to put some makeup on and do my hair.

Well after all of this I was feeling very generous toward Michael who just saved me 'a benjamin' (now I'm thinking back to my old high school days with the likes of Puffy, Biggie, and Mace blaring in the background).  So I get in Michael's express line which now had what seemed like a gazillion customers in it.  I saw a $15 itunes gift card I was going to get for him, but then I wondered if it was presumptius to assume everyone owns apple products so I put it back.  A candy bar - no that's dumb.  An amazon card - lowest gift card denomination $25. An Olive Garden gift card (okay people - don't judge - my choices were limited to whatever was in reach at the checkout counter).  And then it dawned on me, just get some cash back and give him money.  What teenager can't use money. For what - I won't think about :) Does the below ring a bell old high school friends?

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/04/drinking-the-bottom-shelf-boones-farm.html

So it is finally my turn to check-out and at first I tell Michael I want $15 cash back, but something about the $15 sounded cheap so I changed it to $20 (it was a little less painful to up the 'tip' when I was using my husband's debit instead of mine). As I am in the process of paying, one of Michael's friends comes up and asks him 'how's the baby' to which Michael responds 'she comes home from the hospital tommorrow'.

Well, that just sent my do-gooder high into overdrive (and hearing this I was happy I increased the $15 to $20) as I created a whole storyline in my head about this nice young man who was trying to support his baby in the hospital. And then I blurted out, 'you have a baby' to which he responded, 'no, it's my girlfriend's sister's'.

In any case, I still gave him the $20 and walked away smiling as he kindly protested....

Michael - if you are reading this leave us a shout-out :)

He was this friendly and happy before he even knew he was getting a tip.  I just told him I wanted to take a picture of the guy who saved me money.

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