The little things...

After living in middle Georgia for a few years, I had gotten used to the southern hospitality. People would hold doors open for me, save my spot on a line, and say hi for no reason. I'm a New Yorker, from the city, so all of this "niceness" was very strange to me. New Yorkers are a "Do with a purpose and mind your business" kind of people. I never realized I was like this until I moved to GA and went to the supermarket for the first time. I step foot in a Publix (I love that supermarket!) and not five minutes into my shopping trip I get offered 3 samples of ham or something, 50 "morning mams", tons of "you need help getting that" and someone making small talk about the weather while I am reaching for something on the shelf. I will never forget how strange that all felt and how annoyed I was that people kept talking to me! Eventually I became just like everyone else...I adapted to my surrounding and acquired SOME southern hospitality. I even waved at people driving by while walking in my neighborhood, complete strangers! What a nice way to live.

So we moved back to what we call "civilization" (there was NOTHING to do in middle GA) and almost immediately I noticed the difference with the way people acted and treated others. I couldn't stop thinking about how rude people were, and I still feel that way. On Monday I went to Old Navy with Adrianna and they dont have automatic doors. I was walking behind someone and they opened the door, saw that I was trying to walk faster to get to the door and they went ahead and walked in without holding it for me. What, was that gonna take up too much of your precious time? I guess there is no compassion for a mom with a stroller anymore, next thing you know I'll see someone slam the door on a pregnant woman or try to trip an old lady....seriously though how rude!

Just when I had lost all respect for these rude people, someone showed me that there are caring people here. I was at Starbucks with Adrianna on that same Monday, the one with the door holding incident, having some lunch. I was feeding Adrianna carrots and she was enjoying them. Everything seemed normal, as they always seem right before Adrianna throws me a curve ball. She threw up everything! Everywhere! Carpet, highchair, herself, table, everywhere! The workers at Starbucks saw that I was struggling but just ignored me....how could you just ignore? I used to work at Starbucks and I always noticed if someone needed a mop or some rags to clean up a big mess, especially if they had kids. People just walked on by me, I was sitting near where the line formed to order your drink. I didn't even expect for anyone to help me because that's how people are around here. This woman, out of nowhere, came with tons of napkins and got on her hand and knees to help me clean up the orange slime that was Adrianna's vomit. Truly amazing! I don't think I would have made it out of that store with my sanity had it not been for her. I had the mess cleaned and Adrianna changed within 15 minutes. It's the little things people do that can really make your day. I couldn't thank her enough, I tried to buy her a coffee but she refused. I wonder if she knew how much she really helped me? She turned a potentially high stress, day ruining situation into a manageable nearly stress free situation. So I guess there are nice people in MA...