31 days of change :: day 11 {pocket change & drive-thrus}

Note: If you're looking for today's Thankful Thursday post... it's right below this one... or you can just click here.

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Today's "pocket change" post is a little different from last week's.  Instead of using literal pocket change, I found this in the bottom of my purse...

An old gift card with who-knows-how-much-money-left on it!!  Turns out there was a whopping $6.41 left on that bad boy... to think I almost threw it away!

Hmmm... what to do with my newly found $6.41... what to do, what to do...

Then it hit me.  I would use it for someone else... in the McDonalds drive-thru line.  I mean, I was already planning on getting myself a Dr.Pepper... so why not just pay for the car behind me??

So I patiently waited to pull up to the window to pay... I fished out $1.06 in cash for my drink... partly because I actually had $1.06 in cash... but mainly because I wanted to make sure I had enough on my gift card to cover the person behind me.  I was just hoping that $6.41 was enough and the person behind me wasn't ordering like a thousand chicken nuggets or anything...

Phew.  Safe... the car behind me had a total of $4.43... good to go.

Probably the best part of this experience was my interaction with the guy at the cashiers window...

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guy: (not smiling and not looking at me) "Total is $1.06"

me: (give him my $1.06) "Ummm... I want to pay for the car behind me too, can you tell me their total?"

guy: (totally stops what he's doing and looks at me) "Why?  Do you know them?"

me: "No."

guy: (smile) "Wait a second... I remember you from a long time ago... you've done this before haven't you?"

me: (nope... that wasn't me, I've never even been to this particular McDonalds before, but I'm completely exhilarated at the fact that someone else has done this before and it's obviously made an impression on this young man) "No... I don't think that was me..."

guy: (now completely smiling from ear to ear) "Oh.... are you sure?  Man, that is just so nice!  I don't get it... why do you do it if you don't know them??"

me: "I mean, who doesn't like a free lunch every once in a while, right?"

guy: "Yeah... no kidding!  And you never know how something so simple might just make their day!"
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So true, so true.  Wise words Mr. McDonalds cashier guy... kind of like how you just made mine.

I'll never know if the car behind me was excited to have their lunch paid for or if they could care less... but I do know that a simple $4.43 sure did make my day.  I got a lot more than a Dr. Pepper in that drive-thru line...

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 For the month of October I'm doing a 31-day series on "change."  Go here to see the full line-up of "change" posts.