Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Day Five

I forgot to mention that yesterday's day of donation was kind of a bust. Tarona and I hadn't heard back from any organizations in Texas, so we thought we'd just wing our random act of kindness, but our timing must have been off because there was nobody around. We even thought that maybe we could clean up any garbage that might have been left on the tables at the food court where we planned to have lunch, but those Texans cleaned up after themselves! Seeing as we wanted to get going to Santa Fe, we just sent out happy thoughts and figured we'd make up for our lack of do-goodedness there. Which, I'm happy to say, we did.

After our day of chilling out and being pampered, Tarona and I stopped off for a bite to eat, but I couldn't finish my meal: a perfectly seared sirloin steak sliced thinly over sautéed spinach, grilled asparagus, and roasted tomatoes. I had about half of it wrapped up knowing that I wanted to give it to somebody who, most likely, wouldn't be eating tonight. I asked one of the locals if--and I know this sounded bizarre to her, but it made perfect sense to me--she knew of a popular area nearby where homeless people tended to gather. She did and she pointed us in the right direction because, lo and behold, right on the main boulevard, in the light of the late afternoon, was a man who definitely looked like he could use a decent meal.

Without being disrespectful and turning this into a comical recount, I will merely say that that man sure could bob and weave in between buildings because Tarona and I nearly ran over a median (twice) trying to catch up to this guy. When we finally did, and Tarona called out to him from her window, and I exited the car with my leftovers, the man said, "I've been looking for something to eat. Thank you."

I hope that our small act of kindness made that man's day because that was all I needed to make mine.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for you two! One time I offered a guy in San Francisco my tofu salad and he denied it - sounds like sirloin is the way to go:)

I can't wait to hear about the next ten days.

Dina, how much was the gas today?
Lots of love,
Erika

Dina R. D'Alessandro said...

E, you're awesome! Thanks for checking in on us. I miss you tons and hope all's well!

Willie Mammoth said...

Hey Intrepid Benevolent Travelers! Sounds like you are doing the good work and I am very happy to see that it is going well- rest assured that every little act of kindness is deeply significant to somebody and you two are to be commended for making the simple effort so many of us fail to. Stay safe, Happy Trails and please tell the West Coast I say hello!

cheers
-Chris W

Dina R. D'Alessandro said...

Chris! Thank you! Believe it or not, I miss work and you guys. Please send my regards to everyone there.

Oh, and the West Coast says "hello" back.