An A.R.K. - Act of Random Kindness

Right on the heels of my rant (after which I felt much better, by the way), the Cosmic Awareness decides to throw me a curveball in the form of an act of random kindness. Here's the story:

My co-workers have had kind of a front row seat for the madness of my apartment hunt. Granted, I kept most of it kind of low key, but they still got to see a lot of it on a day-to-day basis. The day after my last posting, one of my co-workers, Janet (name changed to protect the innocent) comes up to me and says, "I have a gift for you."

I eyed her, suspecting some kind of prank. Not that Janet is a prankster in any way. She's an agreeable, solid character, a genuinely nice person. Which, of course, makes her the PERFECT front woman for a prank. I know there are several other pranksters in the office. I responded with a bit of my paranoia bleeding into my voice, "Really?"

"Yes, a big present. A service of dishes for 8 people!" As Janet goes on about a family member cleaning out old stuff from a previous (short term) marriage, all my paranoia dissipated to be replaced with amazement, gratitude, and yes, a bit of shame for suspecting her. (Which just adds to her being the perfect front woman for a prank!)

And the dish service is fantastic, too. Not at all girly or anything. Just simple and classic. It was a very cool thing for Janet to do. While other co-workers have donated stuff to my apartment, this instance struck a chord because it was completely random. I knew Janet was listening, but she has two daughters and a large extended family that she's dealing with, so I was thinking that my issue just went in one ear and out the other. So, the fact that my issues registered enough for her to remember it was really cool.

Second was the timing. Just as I'm at the point where I'm freaking out about all the little things my apartment needs, someone came and randomly gave me a chunk of the stuff I needed to get. Janet couldn't have timed it better if she were paid to! It was really cool.