yesterday my daughter, my grandson and i went on a trip to seattle, to meet with some of my daughter’s online friends. they took us to the aquarium – what a fabulous place! fish, art, education, photography, fun, otters, starfish and so much more, all in one place. can’t wait to go there again.

what i really want to tell you about, though, on this thanksgiving weekend, is about a 10-second encounter with a young man.

after a pilgrimage to the cheesecake factory and getting terrifyingly lost, we went to QFC to stock up on cheap booze and weird american junk food. then down to the parking garage to load it all up and pack up the three gazillion doodahs you carry around with you when you’re with a baby.

as we’re putting things away, we hear a voice, “is this your backpack?”

and indeed, it was mine. the one with my passport in it. the one with the visa in it that took me three hours to get in the long-weekend line-up at the border. i had completely forgotten about it.

the young man, obviously a QFC employee, just handed me the backpack, i thanked him profusely, and he disappeared.

but the feeling of gratitude hasn’t left me ever since. sick with a cold to begin with and a little spooked by having gotten lost, the idea of arriving at the border 2 ½ hours later, in the middle of the night, without my passport, and probably not having a clue where i’d lost it, made me shudder.

with just a bit of thougtfulness and taking a minute or two to track us down, this young man (and probably also the super-nice cashier with whom we had briefly chatted earlier), saved us from hours of great discomfort.

i am so moved by that. there is so very little we often need to do to dramatically improve someone’s day.

thank you, people at QFC. thank you.

thank you.

(this post appeared in gonzo’s carnival of cities as well as the thumbs up carnival)