Last night, I went to Target. I took out $140 from the ATM, intended to be my money for the week. (I've imposed a budget.)
I went up to pay for my hummingbird feeder and soup and discovered I had exactly $7 (and change) in my purse. I started freaking out, checking all my pockets, ripping my purse apart.. I finally told the cashier that I'd have to come back.
I went over to the ATM and stared at it. It sunk in: I left my money in the ATM. I couldn't believe it. Could I really do something that dumb? I wondered. But I couldn't remember actually taking the money. Aggh!
I kept thinking, 'What can I do?' ATMs always have cameras, but it'd hardly be a criminal offense to take money out of an ATM that some airhead had forgotten there.
So I'm standing there, the contents of my purse emptied on the customer service counter, thinking exactly how bad LOSING $140 was going to be for my personal finances. "That's nearly my plane ticket home!"
That's when a lady walked up with a little boy and said, "Did you leave your money there?" "Yes?" She handed over a wad of cash. "My son found it and gave it to me. We were taking it to the security guard."
Wow, right? Wow. I gave the kid a $20. His eyes lit up and he said, "Thank you," even as his mom tried to give it back. Very cute.
So anyway, I feel very lucky. And very much like I should not be allowed to handle money. Whee!
that's awesome! i was a park once on a tour and dropped my wallet. when we got back from the tour some woman came up and asked me if i was allison. i was like.. "yea...." and she gave me my wallet that i didn't even know was missing. her kid looked pissed because he was the one that found it. i tried to give him a $10, but his mom wouldn't let him, then he looked real pissed. i said thank you and walked away.
I'm Stacey. I'm a 31(!)-year-old Wisconsin girl living in sunny South Florida. The highlights in my life are my lovely boyfriend, my aloof cats, my adorable/adoring stepdogs, my two lumbering tortoises, select family members, being outside, being underwater, taking pictures, yadda yadda. Stay tuned for lots of babbling!
A small boy lived by the ocean. He loved the creatures of the sea, especially the starfish, and he spent much of his time exploring the seashore.
One day the boy learned there would be a minus tide that would leave the starfish stranded on the sand.
When the tide went out, he went down to the beach, began picking up the stranded starfish, and tossing them back into the ocean.
An elderly man who lived next door came down to the beach to see what the boy was doing. Seeing the man's quizzical expression, the boy paused as he approached. "I'm saving the starfish!" the boy proudly declared.
When the neighbor saw all of the stranded starfish he shook his head and said: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, young man, but if you look down the beach, there are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see. And if you look up the beach the other way, it's the same. One little boy like you isn't going to make much of a difference."
The boy thought about this for a moment. Then he reached his small hand down to the sand, picked up another starfish, tossed it out into the ocean, and said: "Well, I sure made a difference for that one!"
