Good News and Bad News

Today I come bearing bad news.  Really bad news.  But also really good news.  Which do you wanna hear first??

Good?

Bad?

Good it is.  Unfortunately... I did not win the lottery.  That's not my good news.  I know you were wondering!

This past Saturday, I attended a management workshop at Jamba HQ (Emeryville, CA if you were wondering) as the last step of my assistant GM training (three cheers for being finally done!).  Well afterward I decided to hop on down to the Jamba down the street for a celebratory smoothie - I mean come on, what else would I do? It's appropriate right?  So I got my smoothie and after a few pictures of the awesome patio chairs they had, I headed on home, which is across the SF bay from Emeryville; a 45+ minute drive.

I had been inside my house for no more than five minutes when my dad called, asking, "Do you have your wallet?"

And I said, "Yeah, why?"  While on the phone, I walked over to where I'd dropped my purse on the dining table and rummaged through it.  No wallet.

Ohhhhh crap.  Inside it was my ID, cash, credit/debit cards, my health insurance card, car insurance info, and all of my CPR/Lifeguarding certifications.

On the phone, my dad says, "Because I just got off the phone with Mom [my dad's mom] and she has it."  My grandmother lives in Berkeley, a city neighboring Emeryville.

Turns out, my wallet fell out of my purse in the parking lot somewhere between the Jamba I went to and the car.  Who knows how long later, a girl my age and her mom came across it in the parking lot, and the girl, upon opening it and seeing my ID says, "Mom, we gotta get this back to this girl.  She's even my age!  We gotta help her out."  She didn't turn it in to the security cop patrolling the parking lot, or the nearest business, or even the police; she knew probably nothing would come of it, and that I'd probably never get it back.

Instead, she went through my wallet, trying to find something to point in a direction of where she could find me. My address was on my ID, but she didn't know if that was current or not.  No "call if.." phone number (stupid me).  What she found was a check from my grandmother, given to me as a birthday present, which I'd deposited weeks ago but had yet to tear up.  There was an address on the check.

She and her mom drove from Emeryville to Berkeley, thinking, Oh, she's probably in college and her mom's just helping her out with lending her some money.  It was easy to assume because my grandmother and I share the same last name.  So, they drove to the address on the check and pulled up in front of a convelescence home.  The girl is like, "Oh, this is her grandmother's address!"  So she goes inside and gives the receptionist my grandmother's name; asks to see her.  She presents my grandmother with my wallet and they visit for a while before the girl left her address and phone number for me, and went home.

A few hours later, I was back in Berkeley picking up my wallet, and after hearing my grandmother recount the story of what happened, I picked up my phone to call this girl.  Hell no was I writing this chick a thank you note, that would take weeks!  I was like, I gotta call and thank her right now.  

This girl is one of the coolest people I've ever known, and I haven't even met her!  Hell, I don't even know what she looks like.  I tried to thank her in our conversation like three times, but all she kept saying was, "it's my pleasure, girl.  Totally my pleasure."  

Then she said, "I just wanted to prove a point, that there are still honest people out there who would do the right thing."

Let me tell you, we need more people like this in the world.

Here's the most awesome, amazing part of the story.  You thought it was legit up till now?  It gets better.

I've done things like this for other people in the past, and if you don't believe in karma, this is proof:  what goes around, comes around.  True story bro.

~

Well since that story was so long, I think I'll just postpone my bad news until tomorrow.  Don't worry, I don't have terminal cancer, and my dog didn't die.  You can let go of that breath you've been holding.

Do you have any amazing and touching stories like this??  I'd love to hear them!   xx

p.s.  this girl is getting the most awesome gift bag I can dream up!, courtesy of A String of Purls.   :)