pay it forward

Picture a typical girls night out: a Friday night in a crowded restaurant. Appetizers made with all the things we avoid in our day to day regular diets {bacon, avocado, trans fat}and lots of laughs and sighs of relief to be out without the kids {for my mommy friends, not me.} Plates being swapped along with stories and favorite SNL skits reenacted... so far, a very normal night for us.

The event that changed it from normal to memorable: our cute server comes to our table with the desert menu and says to start thinking about what we are trying after our meal.  {Assume much? What if we were full? Maybe a clever up sale tactic and I'm impressed} then he came back a couple seconds later and says, "This has never happened to me before.  Ever."  That is when I noticed a second server hovering nearby smiling at us.  She says,

"The family that just left that table over there has paid your bill."

We were all stunned.  It took a minute to register, then a million questions from the four of us all at once.  Both servers were gushing about how cool it was of them to pick us at random.  We are all smiling and wishing we could have had the chance to thank the kind strangers who picked us out of a crowded restaurant to remind us how it feels to have a random act of kindness passed our way.

So yeah, we ordered desert {our bill now, we weren't taking advantage of the strangers}to celebrate our good fortune, and maybe to draw out the meal a little more to soak in the niceness of the moment.  As we wandered the mall after from time to time one of us would say, "I can't believe that just happened to us." 

I have goosebumps and a lump in my throat just thinking about it.  How fun it'd be to pick someone at random next time I'm out and do the same for them.

{images from the snowstorm yesterday.. that is still going on strong today}