Monday, April 27, 2009

SPT: gifting a total stranger

It's Tuesday and time for a SPT challenge. Lelly assigns a theme each Tuesday and challenges you to interpret it through a self portrait. We all know Mama hates to have her picture taken, however I am SLOWLY working on this.

Here's what Lelly said for the month of April:
"wouldn't it be great if we spent this month giving gifts!and before you lovingly remind me of the economic recession, let me add that no money is to be spent on these gifts! let's focus on the gift of service, the gift of a smile, the gift of a repurposed or gently used item, the gift of a kind word. you know, those gifts that would be hard to wrap in a box with a pretty bow.
for tuesday, april 7: gift a family member
for tuesday, april 14: gift a friend
for tuesday, april 21: gift a neighbor, teacher, co-worker
for tuesday, april 28: gift a total stranger
i have a feeling that by the end of this month, the person who will have received the greatest gift is...YOU! "

This may have been the hardest challenge yet. You see, I've never met a total stranger. Seriously, after two minutes I'm your best friend.

But there is something I started doing back in college after hearing about the RAK (random acts of kindness) wave.

Here in Florida there are tolls for so many of our roads.


This is a old DOT photo of a toll road out to one of our local beaches. Don'cha love it?

In college I started paying my toll AND the toll for the car behind me. The feeling was great!

However, nowadays we have Sun Pass's that deduct tolls from our checking account. I have gotten into the time saving habit of using the SunPass only lane (which you only need to slow down for, not completely stop). There is no way to deduct more from this transaction.

But next time?


I have this. When I'm heading out to the beach (or any toll road) I can get in the "slow" lane and use my sun pass for my car, and these quarters for the car behind me.

And I get to tell the toll collector to have a BLESSED Day. (another lesson in college: toll collectors had the highest suicide rate among professions ~ however this was only like 15+ years ago so it may not be accurate any longer).

Wanna see how others gifted a total stranger? Head over to Amuse-Bouche.

9 comments:

vgsmom said...

I love this idea. What fun for everyone invovled. My fastpass idea came to me because I just don't feel well today (so mostly laziness). I will defintely try doing something more current over the next few weeks.

Keeper Of All Things said...

I think that number went down after they got air conditioning for the lil cubicles!!!!

Jeanette said...

This is such a wonderful idea. And I love that you make friends so easily. What a gift. You must be an amazing person. I wish I could come go to the beach with you. I am so jealous of people who live near the beach.

Tami said...

You're such a sweetheart :)

Lene said...

Such an easy and nice surprise for the person behind you.

Chris said...

My dad does that a lot. That is a great thing. We have the fixed toll thing and never stop anymore. Good sharing. :-)

jenn said...

how nice. we dont have any toll booths around here, thank goodness!

MaryRC said...

this a great idea! ive been on vacation and ended up on toll roads scrambling for change. great spt

Kristie said...

The other night I got on a tollroad (by mistake!) and had to drive for half an hour before I could get off and go back the other direction. Like that wasn't frustrating enough, the change-booth-machine thing took more money than I needed both times. I put in the dollar in change I was required, then still didn't get a green light until I put in even more. I was so annoyed, and would have LOVED to have someone do this for me!!