The loss and regaining of respect for man-kind

Mike and I have had an emotional couple of days. Well, the emotional part was mostly on my side, although, one part did get him as well. I blame hormones. And being a girl. And stressed and a big lack of sleep. Anyways.

My mom's company threw her a grand-baby party, right? Well, one big chunk of that was a $230 gift card for Babys R Us. Last night Mike and I went to get all those little things that you need and were definitely spending the entire amount, and then some. When we got to check out, two other gift cards were fine, but that $230 one had nothing on it. We figured that someone messed up when ringing it up and just didn't put the money on, or something like that. We called customer service, but they were already closed for the night, so we just put everything on hold until we figured it out.

Today Mike called them again and found out that the money had been put on correctly, and that on Nov. 29 someone checked the balance and used the card. This opened a whole can of legal worms for the store, and they said they'd try to figure it out and let us know if we could get a new card with the money on it. Needless to say, I reacted emotionally, Mike not so much. I tend to panic more than him about stuff, and the other afore mentioned factors caused me to pretty much lose it. Both of us were just disgusted because the customer service person guessed that someone used it online and just sat there typing in numbers until they hit a real card with money. How can people do something like that? Apparently there's some scam where people have managed to duplicate gift cards and make fake ones and use them after the real card has been activated.

Now here's the really good part. The part that restores our faith in the goodness of people, and then some. We happened to have the receipt for said gift card, and Babys R Us wanted us to fax it to them. Not having a machine ourselves, we went into work at the traffic office a little early to use the one there. Naturally, it raised a little curiosity, and we ended up telling a couple of people what happened. We don't actually know if that is connected to the next part or not, but we think it probably does. Sgt. Vest called Mike into his office and gave him an envelope. He said that someone put it on his desk and told him to give it to Mike. In that envelope was a blank card and a $100 bill.

With the job that we work we see a lot of selfish and self-centered people every day. We see tons of people that think they're the most important person, that they're the exception to everything. Today I feel like the exception. I feel like in a world where so many people just don't care and where so many people feel unloved, we are the exception. Someone really did care, and not just that, but they did such a wonderful act of service and don't even want recognition. That is the true meaning of charity, and the best part is that I know it doesn't have anything to do with the time of year, it's something they'd do if it was summer time. All I can say is, Merry Christmas, and remember what this season is all about!