People ARE good!

Now that *in theory* I am working out and training, I can now post to my non-baby related blog!! I am going to rise to the challenge taken on by several of the bloggers I read, and endeavor to post every day in the month of December. Well, I'll post to one of my blogs every day ... I still plan on keeping my baby related mush on das Kleinkind Chronicles, and my fitness/getting in shape/looking for work/general musings right here.

So day one, here goes!

In general, I WANT to believe in the overall goodness of people despite much evidence in the news to the contrary. I generally try to avoid the news except of course for the celebrity gossip. I may not have a clue what's going on in the economy, but by golly I've seen the news feeds from E! and People Magazine, and I can tell you where Madonna spent her Thanksgiving. Yes, I know it's pathetic that someone as intelligent as me knows more about what's in the tabloids than on CNN - but it's my life and that's how I choose to lead it at the moment.

Anyway, in addition to not watching a lot of "real" news, I'm also not much of a shopper. I have found, however, that it is a LOT of fun to shop for other people, especially the men in my life. I usually avoid the Black Friday crowd, but I had a grandma staying at the house ready to babysit and B.J. was at a football game, so in the late afternoon I thought I'd risk a trip to the Mall. It actually wasn't that bad since I suspect all the crazed discount-mongers had arrived at 0600 and were long home. After hitting a few stores, I made it back to my car with my booty in hand .... or at least most of it. I realized that I was missing a bag from Baby Gap which had been my first stop. I quickly went over my route in my head and realized that I must have set the bag down at Gymboree when I was combing through the sale racks. I was kindof bummed because I knew that there was no chance it would still be there hours later. Luckily it only contained a little pair of baby sweat pants that I got on sale for $4. I put the keys in the ignition and got ready to leave, but then decided that I might as well go in and ask if someone had turned it in - though I wasn't hopeful.

I walked back into the mall crowd and patiently stood in line at Gymboree. I asked the sales clerk, "I know this is a long shot, but did anyone turn in a Baby Gap bag with a pair of sweat pants in it?"

To my shock and surprise, she said, "yes they did!" Then proceeded to hand me the bag from a cabinet. Had I dropped it in an adult clothing store or some other place, then I would have figured no one would have use for my purchase. But given that it was sitting in a newborn clothing section of a kids clothing store, one would assume that whoever found it was also looking for wee outfits and could have easily swiped the sweatpants.

I left the Mall feeling a little better than when I arrived and happy that my belief in the goodness of strangers is not misplaced.