On the little things...

There are two "little things" that I value above all others. One is laughter. The other is kindness. Perhaps when considered alone they're not all that little, but, in the context of life, neither require much, but their presence can make all the difference.

Take, for example, my arrival here Friday evening. My cabbie interaction wasn't my favorite part of the day, and then the front desk people thought I was married and a man. Plus, I was tired and increasingly discouraged by the fact that I would be "stranded" for the next few nights in this suburban hotel with nothing in walking distance. It wasn't adding up to a great night.

I walked into the handicapped designed room I didn't need (the big bathroom is great but I'd gladly exchange it for a real closet, an ironing board, and the need to not mop up the shower water from the floor) and threw my bags down. As I walked into the bathroom, I saw this:


It cracked me up. For a few minutes. So, thank you to this hotel for that. My question, in all sincerity, is do I get to keep the duck?

Onto kindness. So there is ONE place within walking distance from the hotel. I built up the courage to run across the big highway in front of my hotel to get lunch at Potbelly. I was good enough to shower for these folks, but didn't do my hair nor did I apply any makeup. I was there to grab a sandwich for lunch, not to win any type of beauty pageants.

The minute I walked in, I was treated like royalty. And I wasn't the only person in the joint. They're just THAT nice.

Everyone was smiling. Eyes were twinkling. Everyone said hello and asked how I was. The staff chatted me up as my sandwich was made. When the sandwich guy made a mistake and realized his error, it was a team effort to get my sandwich right again. And the manager said, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm doing to buy you a cookie. You shouldn't have had to wait for this sandwich."

They then chatted me up about the time change, weather (please, man with the Midwest accent, say "upper wiscahnsin again.. it makes laugh), snow blowers, and we even started talking about the situation in Pakistan when my sandwich made its way to me.

It was one of the most pleasant consumer experiences of my life.

I'm slowly starting to realize that friendliness isn't rare, it's just much more difficult to find in the Washington, DC area. I'm becoming less and less enamoured with DC and am becoming eager to find a place where kindness prevails, chatting each other up and smiling doesn't make you a lunatic, and a sense of community exists. DC is less and less that place, and, in a way, so are many of the places I've spent time over the past few years (Boston and New York included).

As I chatted with a person from a different part of my life last week in New York, she looked horrified as I shared with her the potential that there may be a move to the Midwest, among other places, in my near future.

"Ugh. That's so weird. You'll be like the most popular person there." She then went on to tell me about attending a conference where, at break times, she and her other New Yorkers only hung out with other attendees from New York, because everyone else was too weird.

What?

I was so disheartened by this response. So much of the past 8 years has been about cities and appearing relatively cosmopolitan. I've come to the conclusion, as I 'get older', that I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of the city attitude and sense of superiority that seems to accompany people and that place. I crave different things now. I crave kindness, I crave community, I crave laughter and a sense of what's real.

If that makes me weird and un-cosmopolitan, bring it on.