I’m Basically Married to Mother Teresa when it Comes to Kindness and Food
first off, thanks to those that have already voted for me and the hubs to speak at SXSW! if you haven’t, we would be so appreciative if you would and you can read all about it right heeere!
second off, we had a delicious weekend date night at the ‘bite of oregon!’ we live downtown so we get to walk to said culinary event along the water…it’s a rough life over here.
‘the bite of oregon’ really changed our lives. my husband used to work for ‘honest tea’ (ya know…the tea the president drinks) and he wheeled and dealed until he finally convinced the organizers to allow him entry with ‘honest tea’ products like 5 years ago. ‘the bite’ benefits special olympics oregon, so they are also key players in organizing and running the massive 3 day event.
after we passed out thousands of bottles at the event, ravery decided to stop by the special olympics office and drop off a case of the marketing VP’s favorite flavor. as he was leaving, the VP told ravery that they had a job opening for the manager of marketing and communication and he should apply for it and eventually he got the job! it changed our lives and it was fun to see a few of his old coworkers and play catch up.
i’m not going to lie…it was fun to be on the patron side instead of the volunteer side (though that has major perks too), and mostly because i could drink wine.
it’s $5 bucks to get in and then food ranges from $3-9 which is quite affordable-all while benefiting a great organization! it was free for me to show off my awesome giraffe-neck move.
it might be a weird couple’s thing but we apparently love to open our mouths when taking a picture…and so do the people photobombing. well-played lady.
i was munching on a gouda grilled cheese sandwich on rustic craft bread (soaked in butter) with caramelized onions and bacon. yes, i took a picture of the sign so i would remember exactly what it was.
let me tell you a story about this kalua pork and why i started tearing up moments after he got it.
as we walked up to the hawaiian cart, there was a very sad woman looking down at her fresh plate of food that she just dropped on the dirt covered ground. i empathized with her because there is no “5 second rule” when you drop food in dirt. it just doesn’t work that way.
as i stood next to my husband, he ordered two plates of hawaiian food and i immediately said “oh i don’t need my own, i just want a few bites of yours.”
he sweetly said, “oh, this isn’t for you. i’m going to buy that woman another plate because i know what a terrible and sad feeling that is when that happens to your food.”
i thought that was incredibly kind, obviously.
after he got his food, he went over and quickly handed the woman a fresh plate. she and the 5 other people she was standing with all looked surprised and he simply said “i know what a bad feeling that is…enjoy and have a great evening!” and we walked away. he’s basically mother teresa.
1 minute later, one of her friends came over and said ‘hey man, that was just really cool of you. thank you so much, we all really appreciate that kindness.”
3 minutes later after i was taking my “i’m your wife, you must give me 3 bites” bites and another man came over and said “hey, i just wanted to shake your hand and say thank you again for buying my friend a new plate. it’s things like that which restore my faith in our society and i just wanted you to know how moved i was to see you do that.”
how amazing is that?! i totally teared up and felt such pride in how kind and giving my husband is to complete strangers. and a little bad that my first reaction wasn’t “hey…i should buy her food!”
we also got doubly ID because apparently we look 19? the ID lady was also doubly sneaky because when she was looking at our ID, she also asked us questions. ravery’s question was “what year did you graduate from high school?” and i got “what is your zip code” which immediately sent me into a panic because my mind went blank and i felt like i had a fake ID.
on our walk back home, we watched these night painters capturing the moonlight (note his headlamp) and it reminded me of my nana-she’s quite the painter and just sold her first painting! i have inherited none of her artistic talents.
lovely date night with a kind-hearted man and a moon brighter than any i’ve seen before.
questions:
1) highlight of your weekend?
2) do you like to paint or are you artsy?
3) last act of kindness you did?
Paula Howley
August 12, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Must be tough being married to Mother Theresa. 🙂
He is pretty awesome Chels, and it made me tear up tool.
1. Highlight of my weekend???? My BROTHER SHOWED UP OUT OF THE BLUE FROM ONTARIO!!!!! He’s a truck driver and this was his first trip out to BC- we got to spend the entire weekend together. After my hubby and my daughter, he is my favourite person in the whole wide world.. YOu would LOVE him Chelsea- he is very cool. He was in radio for a long time but you can’t feed a family of 5 on the afternoon drive so he did what he had to do. I really admire him for that.
2. I don’t paint but I consider myself artsy for sure. I write, dance, do collage and encourage my daughter to learn as much as she can about the arts.
3. My last kindness was probably driving for 8 hours so I could spend 4 hours with my brother. lol
No, let me see. I am inviting all the toastmasters of the sunshine Coast to come and watch the world Championships at my house free of charge even though it will cost me a hundred bucks to buy the simulcast. I think that’s pretty kind. or pretty stupid, one of the two.
Paula Howley recently posted…Public Presentations For Kids
chelsea
August 12, 2014 at 2:42 pm
it really is, paula. thank you for understand 🙂
that is too cool that your brother surprise attacked you and you got to spend the whole weekend together! now i want to meet your brother and eat chips and drink ginger ale with your whole family!
love that you are inspiring the artist mindset in your daughter!
that is SUPER kind of you to invite fellow toastmasters over to your place while shelling out $100 (jeeeeez!) to get the simulcast. now i want to try and figure out where the camera is for that and jump in front of it and scream “hiiii paula!” i’ll see what i can…
Paula Howley
August 12, 2014 at 3:40 pm
DO IT CHELS!!!!! That would be super cool.
Paula Howley recently posted…Public Presentations For Kids
Heather Hawkins
August 12, 2014 at 4:21 pm
1) We spent Saturday afternoon with the in-laws playing games and with playdoh that Miss Aiden and Gaynor had made the weekend before. We had to explain to Miss Aiden why the playdoh man couldn’t go to the beach naked with a penis just hanging out. She kept arguing that he had one so she had to put it on. I told her that was fine so long as he wore pants. Its okay to have a penis, it just can’t be out at the beach, unless its a nakie beach.
2) I quilt….and I do hair. Woohoo!
3) I helped an old Indian man who couldn’t think of the words in English to describe a hem that needed mending on his pants at the craft store. So, I helped him find hem tape since he doesn’t know how to sew very well. There was a lot of charades going on and “the place the trousers come together….it is….opened. It not supposed to be opened.” He said I had a kind heart and he could tell I was a mommy.
chelsea
August 12, 2014 at 10:10 pm
that sounds like an excellent way to spend a saturday afternoon heather-particularly with naked playdoh man trying to make his beach a nudie beach! haha “it’s okay to have a penis” haaa this is the best.
quilting and doing hair make you quite artsy!
that is such a sweet story of helping that elderly man find hem tape and that he could see your heart 🙂