Anonymous Was Here

I bought lunch for the person behind me in the McDonald's drive-thru on Tuesday.
Have you ever done that?
It's fun.  If you haven't done that yet, you need to try it.  It isn't expensive, and hopefully it makes someone's day just a bit brighter!
Of course, you won't know how it made it brighter or whose day you made shinier...but you can just imagine the happy, little surprise it must have been to the recipient!

My husband and I make a sporadic, totally random habit of paying someone's bill at a restaurant - sometimes it's a young couple, sometimes an older couple, sometimes it's a parent with a child.  It's funny, but my husband and I are on the same wavelength here.  We both seem to get the idea at the same time and for the same person or people.  We don't even do it that often.  It's just something that suddenly bubbles up inside of us, and we have to do it. We'll just smile at each other, with a "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" look.

Our meal gifting is always anonymous.  We hardly ever get to see the recipient's reaction...except for one time.  We were at a restaurant waiting to be seated and there were a couple of ladies "from away" (summer visitors) who were also waiting.  Though they were there before us, the hostess called us first.  As I went up to ask if she had made a mistake, one of the ladies spoke up and abruptly insisted that they were next.  My mouth just dropped open.

We paid for their meal, I think originally to apologize anonymously for the wrong they thought they'd been done, and to help them "lighten up".  We then watched as they got upset with the waitress because she wouldn't take their credit card - obviously not listening to "It's already been paid".  Life is tough when you have to be angry all the time and assume the negative.  After a bit more discussion, the waitress then pointed us out.  We were uncomfortable that she had done that, but it was kind of nice to be thanked.  They told us that this was the nicest thing that had happened the whole time in Maine.  (There was something about that, that was sad to me...I can't believe that there wasn't something else pleasant that happened here....but I digress as I often do...)

We got to see how it can change an outlook, even it if was just for a bit.
And it gave us something to smile about, too.
Our goal was accomplished.