People are nice

This morning I had to visit the courthouse to file two records with the clerks for pending appeals. For one case the record was so large that we put it in a three-ring binder. If I only had to file one copy, that wouldn't be a problem, but no, I have to file one and date-stamp four, identical copies. We put them in a copy paper box to make them easier to carry. The record for the second case was much smaller and the four copies tucked nicely in the box.

I prayed that I'd find a parking space close to the courthouse and I did, right across the street on First. I am still limping because there's a hole in my foot with stitches, but it's not so painful that I couldn't make it across the street and up the steps to the courthouse. I did, passed through security, and got to the clerk's office. The woman who waited on me was just as pleasant as she could be, laying waste to the stereotype that government workers are rude. I filed my copies and left the originals with her, loaded the box back up with the date stamped ones I needed to send to the attorney general's office and the defendent's attorneys and made my way back out. As I got to the bottom of the steps and began to walk back to the light so I could cross to the Miata. A gentleman was walking ahead of me on the sidewalk, maybe 10 steps ahead, when all of a sudden he turned and said, "Hey, do you want me to carry that?" I didn't think he was talking to me at first, but he repeated the question and I realized that he thought that the box had to be as heavy as it was unwieldy. At that moment I knew that it was going to be a good day, despite what weirdness might befall at work, and the weirdness did in spades. I thanked him and declined and pointed to the Miata and said that I only had to go to it and that it wasn't that heavy. He smiled, I smiled, and he went on his way across Mulberry while I crossed to the Miata. I put the box in the front seat and dropped the top and turned my iPod on and scooted off to work cheered by the goodness of the world.

I hope you had a moment of unexpected kindness today, too.