I don't do funny. As far as writing, I mean. Most of the stuff I write is serious and, I hope, fairly deep. I know I am a funny person....because a lot of people laugh at me. And it is not because I am a moron or dumb as my 17 year old daughter seems to think. I really can be quite funny.
So I have a funny story to write about. Let's see if I can WRITE funny. Today, like virtually every day that I am alive and functioning, I went to Starbucks. I love Starbucks. Now, I need to qualify the every day thing. First, I travel about 80% for work so I can expense roughly 80% of the Starbucks that I drink. When I am home and go to Starbucks I use gift cards that have been given to me or that I have earned online by completing silly surveys.
I have been making at least two purchases per day for at least a week and a half because Starbucks is doing a giveaway for free products that can be entered twice daily with a code from receipts. I need to purchase two items to get two receipts so I have the Barista ring up two separate transactions. This serves a dual function because I also earn a star for every transaction. Twelve stars=One free drink which said daughter frequently enjoys. I might add, by the way, that when said daughter is enjoying free drinks on said mom her mom is no longer a moron, but a wonderful specimen of a human being!
So on this cold, rainy, miserable Wichita day I enter the drive thru, place my order and WAIT as the person in front of me in line is taking a monumental amount of time to order drinks. After working all night and getting only 5 hours of sleep I am over this already. So when I arrive at the window the beaming female employee announces, in her most gleeful voice, a smile beaming across her face, that the patron in front of me had just paid for my drink. I looked at her, responding with a not-so-beaming smile of my own. Really, I said? Not only was I counting on my two receipts and my two stars, I ALSO had a stamp toward a free drink that I HAD to get for purchasing the drink that was just purchased for me! So imagine my partial relief when the employee told me I could still receive my important stamp. But how was I going to get that extra receipt AND that extra star? Thinking quickly, I asked how much the car behind me had spent and, miracles of miracles, that person had spent almost exactly what I had! YAY! The best news EVER! So I paid for that person's drink and ended up getting my star AND my extra receipt with the bonus code on it.
I need to explain two things that make this story even more amusing. First, I could expense both of my purchases to my company so a free drink at this time was not crucial for that reason, as well as al the reasons already mentioned. The second thing is, if I had been at home and paying for my OWN drink, I would have been the happiest person on the face of the planet after receiving a drink --or anything -- free! The irony of all of this was not lost on me.
Now, wasn't that a FUNNY story????
Paying It Forward
