People aren't so bad....

I must admit, I can be a little short tempered at times. And this one time made me realize that my bad day doesn't have to rub off onto others and I really should learn to smile more.

I am helping out at another complex and I really don't want to. I have enough to do at my complex, not to mention NaNo and my other writing and heck I just don't want to do the traveling, so I am usually not in a good mood when I get to this other property.

Today, a resident from this other property came in to the office (this office hasn't had a manager in over 2 months and the office hasn't been open in all that time, so I am the first real body they have had in the office in awhile). This resident wanted to talk to me about his paperwork (he had just finished his new lease paperwork with the previous manager but he had changed jobs and wanted to tell the office, like he is suppose to do). I had a stack of 2 month old paperwork to catch up on and I really didn't have time for more. I was hoping to put him off until a new manager could be hired.

It was 11:55 a.m. and I was hungry. So I told him he would have to schedule and appointment and come back and I would need to see his wife also. He said he could go get her now because they had other appointments this afternoon and he had taken the day off to go to the doctor with her (she's pregnant) and with the office only being open one day a week, he really didn't know when he would be able to get back to the office.

So I huffed a little and said, "Why not, I guess I shouldn't expect to get lunch around here." (I know...that was sooo bad of me and I have no excuses for the behavior)...

He kept right on smiling and said he and his wife would be right back down if that would be okay (he was very nice about it)...I took a deep breath and told him that would be great. And I did mean it. He was smiling and he was nice (even with my attitude), and with that, he changed my mood...BUT that isn't even the best part...

A few minutes later, he and his wife came into the office and he put a brown paper bag on my desk. He told me he had made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for me, so that I didn't have to go without lunch and he asked if I wanted a soda or something to go with it.

I couldn't help myself. I smiled at him and his wife and thanked them for thinking of me. I then took the time to get to know them a little better and found them to be a very nice couple.

When I got home today, I did up a thank you card and will put it in the mail to them tomorrow to let them know that they had made my day much better with that simple little gesture.

That one thoughtful act will make me think twice about giving attitude to someone in the future. And every time I start to get aggravated about something, I'm going to remember my peanut butter and jelly sandwich couple and smile...