Pay it forward for me

Lela and I experienced a random act of kindness this weekend. We went to a birthday party on Saturday afternoon (happy birthday, Josh!). When we were leaving, I realized it was almost time for Lela to eat but I knew she would pass out from the birthday-excitement let-down as soon we got in the car, so I decided we would wait until we got home to eat. Then, I decided to press my luck and stop by the grocery store on the way home. Lela slept the entire time, but my heart dropped when we got up to the registers and realized the lines were night-before-the-blizzard HUGE! I was racing the clock trying to get home before Lela awoke and started crying for food, and the guy in front of me has ninety different types of produce to scan through the U-Scan-It lane. Sure enough, she started waking up right as we got up to the scanner and I had to let her fuss while I started scanning my groceries. Soon, her fussing turned into full blown, red in the face, eyes oozing tears, screaming. As my scanning took on a frenzied pace and my surrounding grocery shoppers started oggling the screaming baby and the clearly unfit mother in the next aisle, the damn thing stopped ringing up my items because I needed to clear the (long) conveyer belt of the grocery pile up. I desperately looked around for the nice teenage baggers to assist, but they were standing 15 feet away chatting with one another. So, I (nicely) yelled "can I get some bagging help, please?" while simultaneously jiggling Lela's stroller and sticking the paci in her open, wailing mouth, and when a guy came over and reached out for my shopping bags, I handed them over and continued scanning my stuff.

When I was done scanning and paying, I turned to pick up my grocery bags and realized the man bagging my groceries wasn't wearing the Giant yellow shirts. And I said, "Wait...you don't work here" (duh). He smiled and said, "No, but my daughter had a baby 2 months ago and I understand."

I don't experience random acts of kindness that often, especially up in DC. So, if any of you come across a new mother with a screaming baby, my karma would appreciate it if you could stop and help her out in some way.