Do Gooder Wanna Be

Yesterday the kids & I went grocery shopping. Something we do often. Or at least we the personal shopper is on vacation. So we arrive, and notice a man picking up all the trash around the store. With his hands. Not with one of those pokey trash-picker upper things. Kinda really gross, but whatever. I thought maybe it was some strange community-service sentence or something.

Anyhow, we park, I get the kids out of the car - Michael in the stroller, Emma walking. I used to have them sit together in the front of the shopping cart, but then they starting KILLING each other - pinching, hair pulling, hitting, y'know all the things that best friends do - and they turned me into one of those mothers that publicly screams at her kids with no shame whatsoever. So yeah. Little one in the stroller, big one walks. And I? Without a buggy? Don't buy as much.

So yeah. This trash dude is hanging out at the store's front door, picking up garbage. We approach and he asks for any spare change. Now I'm not one to keep walking - except that one time with my mother, en route to Mamma Mia and we ignored the panhandler who, it turned out was just trying to tell us we were going the wrong way, horrible moment - so I apologized for not having any money to give him, and told him maybe on my way out. Well, that got him talking - showed me this enormous, disgustingly infected cut on his hand, telling me about how hard he's working, his government cheque postponement, how cute my kids are (cuz if nothing else, that'll get you everytime), and on and on and on. Finally we were able to end the chat and went about our shopping.

On the way out, I checked my pocket and it turned out I only had $0.35. Not even enough to get the guy a bun. But I dropped it in his cup nonetheless, he thanked me profusely, complimented the kids even more, and we headed back to the car. During this time, I heard him asking other shoppers if they needed help carrying their groceries to their cars, telling ladies how lovely they looked, and really, just being nice.

So I decided to go to our nearest drive-through and buy the man dinner. We went to Harvey's. I used to love it there, but then when I turned vegetarian some 20-years ago, I stopped eating there. Duh. And since I've been a full-fledged carivore these past two years, I'm not really into fast food anymore. And Harvey's is the ONE burger chain that Jeff hates. But in terms of drive-through's, it was the closest.

We get there, and there is a little line. I think three cars in front of us. Not a huge deal. I decided to get the guy a plain burger and a small fries. No cheese, cuz I'm cheap. But I did get it fully loaded with all the free toppings. I'm thoughtful like that.

As I was saying, three cars. For some reason it took FOREVER for these three damn cars to get their food and carry on about their day. Finally it was my turn and I saw why... Cuz, while there was ONE guy in line inside, the FOUR workers were standing around TALKING!! Meanwhile... I had a hungry, dirty man to feed! Didn't they realize??? MOVE PEOPLE, MOVE!!

At long last, we were given our order. (I had a closed bottle of water in the car that I was going to include in his bag cuz pop... it's so unhealthy. And again, I'm cheap.) After sneaking a few of his fries, the kids & I headed back to the grocery store.

And wouldn't you know it...

HE WAS GONE!!!!!!!

Of course, we drove around a fair bit trying to find him, looking at bus stops, street corners, and no such luck.

By this time the three of us had pretty much finished all the fries, and had given up on trying to find him.

So then I was hell-bent on trying to find ANY homeless - or hungry - person. And I live in an area where it's usually quite simple to find a homeless person. Except for last night. Go f'in figure.

So guess what I had for dinner?

Turns out I'm with Jeff... I don't care so much for Harvey's either.

Perhaps if I hadn't cheaped out and gotten some cheese....?