Thank You, Stranger

This morning at Starbucks, I had only recently begun my "work" (semi-aimless web meandering) when one of the coffee-maidens strolled up to my table and placed beside me -- gratis -- a fresh cup of tea in an actual (not paper) cup. She came back a few minutes later with a sweet smile on her face and said, "It was green tea. That's what you drink, right?"

I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd more recently been drinking Earl Grey. Anyway, I was better off with green tea. It's healthier.

That's the kind of day it's been.

Somewhere in England, a complete stranger, who'd been reading this very blog wherein I recently wrote about the prohibitive -- for me -- cost of pizza, today PayPal-ed me about 125 bucks, saying that he himself had tried comedy and in a world where governments put cash into war but don't subsidize artists, he wanted to help in whatever way he could.

Holy crap!

Though flush with cash, I didn't want to go crazy, so I decided I would live as though still in humble circumstances and have a 99 cent chili from Wendy's for lunch. (Delicious at any price!)

Unfortunately, the solitary cashier was dithering; her supervisor cretinously slow. And though there was no one ahead of me except for the person being served, it was taking forever. So, I walked out and decided to dine instead at the extra-special, $1.99 meatball sandwich Subway on the Lower East Side. That would cost me only twice what I'd have spent at Wendy's and there'd be vegetables to boot.

And hey! With savings like that, why shouldn't I go all the way and get the "meal deal", complete with chips (crisps) and refillable soda?

I'll tell ya why -- 'cause the guy tried to charge me the full "meal deal" price, completely eliminating the savings edge of the $1.99 sub.

Well, I put a stop to that and made certain he factored in the discount -- but then I didn't want to look like a cheap bastard, so I gave the guy a quarter tip, eliminating almost half the savings I'd just regained.

Then the guy says there's no carbonation at the soda station and hands me a can of Coke holding several ounces less than the amount of soda I could get with just a single use of the normally refillable cup.

The day's mood was darkening.

But the Subway guy assured me his friend was bringing over a carbonation cannister and that there'd be soda-a-plenty before too long. So, I took the can as a down payment and ate my meal, which had now cost about four times what I would have spent at Wendy's.

I was squandering a stranger's beneficence.

Trying to salvage what economy I could from this cheap lunch gone awry, before I left the once-special branch of Subway, I asked if the carbonation was in place and the guy said, yes, you can take a soda.

I filled my cup with Diet Coke and was on my way. And almost immediately, I got stopped by a guy asking me for money. Me, who had just taken a hundred and twenty-five dollars from a stranger.

I was in no position to give him money. But considering the fact that someone had just given me money, how could I live with myself if I didn't give him something? I talked him down from two or three dollars to fifty cents and left feeling a little unsavory but not entirely a shithead.

Whew! I took a sip of Diet Coke. It was flat.

That's the kind of a day it's been.