Spread the Love Tuesday

I watched as much of the Inauguration today as I could while msnbc.com's live stream hiccuped and couldn't seem to decide if it wanted me to actually see any coverage. It was a very moving day, and clearly so many American lives were touched with the swearing in of Barack Obama as our 44th President.

I generally had a good day, and it turned great about 20 minutes ago. I hit up the gym after work and did 50 minutes cardio, which felt ok tonight. I knew I was on my own for dinner tonight, and I saw a yummy looking recipe on Rachel Ray while on the treadmill last night, so I decided to venture to the local Trader Joe's after my workout.

Sitting on the front seat of my car were two "green" shopping bags (the kind they sell in every grocery store these days), but these two were navy blue with the Boston Red Sox logo on one side and the other side said "Boston Red Sox" in their special font. I had purchased them on a whim at Shaws a couple weeks ago and had yet to use them. No time like the present! I meant to only grabbed one since I wasn't getting that much, and stuffed it in my purse. When I got in the store I realized I had grabbed both, so I took one out to put my groceries in and kept the other in my purse.

When I got to the register, there was a girl, maybe a couple years older than me, checking out. She was talking very openly about how she had just moved down here from Natick, MA (a western suburb of Boston) to live with her fiance, and how much she already missed home and had to say goodbye to all her friends, and a familiar feeling crept into my heart, as a Boston area native who moved to this area for a similar reason.

She was finished with her purchase and spotted my bag when I put it up on the checkout counter, and she gasped and got so excited! She asked where I got it so she could go get one, so I pulled my extra out of my purse and handed it to her. She immediately transferred all her groceries into it and we talked about how much we love Boston and the Red Sox. She was so happy! We walked out together and wished each other well on our weddings and futures.

It felt really good to give her a little piece of "home", especially when she seemed like she was pretty homesick. I remember when I moved here I looked for any little thing that connected me back to Boston, whether it was a Red Sox bumper sticker while sitting in traffic, a Boston "B" on a baseball cap at the gym, anything really.

This wasn't supposed to be such a long post, but I was really happy that out of nowhere, I was able to do something for someone, and I will be on the lookout for other little things I can do for strangers in the future to make their day a little brighter.