The Nicest Compliment Ever

Hello All,

Okay, so I should be doing my homework right now. But you know, we don't always do what we should be doing...............

Anyway, I wanted to talk about the nicest compliment I ever received and I got it when I least expected it. Which to me, made it all the more special.

Early last month in April, I was trying to locate a Good Will to donate stuff in the city that I volunteer. I must've driven around for a good half hour. I couldn't find it. My day was already off to a bad start so I just decided to just quit.

So I try to get back on the freeway to go to my volunteer job. I see two possible entrances. I take the entrance to the left, but it turns out that I was entering on the wrong side of the road. There was no DO NOT ENTER sign in red that's usually posted for everyone to see.

Anyway, it was a narrow, winded road to the main highway, and I was driving on the wrong side of it. And a car was coming on the opposite direction of me. Luckily I swerved and missed getting into a full head-on collision. I stayed there till the next car passed. Actually turning the car back around so I could drive on the right side of the road was an interesting task.

Needless to say I felt like a complete ass, and I had a good cry. So I get to my volunteer job and one of the ladies there greets me with a warm smile. I'm like "Okay, I just have to tell you what happened to me."

She then looks at me, smiles and pays me one of the nicest compliments " You know, you always come in here and have a story to tell. There is always something interesting happening to you."

She then proceeds to tell me about this movie. She was saying:

 " You know, there is this movie based in England where this woman comes over to visit family. She has a lot of quirks and things always happen to her. And she meets this man that falls in love with her because of it. He just falls for her uniqueness."

I haven't seen her in the office for a while. But she and I come from completely different backgrounds. I used to talk to her a lot and get her perspective on life in the 1960s here in California during the Civil Rights movement. She's given me a lot of perspective and answered a lot of questions I had. She's a woman that's proud of her heritage, and is active in her community. She's very knowlegeable about laws in her community so that she can educate others.

Having her tell me that I lead an interestinglife and always have adventures to talk about made me feel a whole lot better after nearly getting plowed over on the wrong side of the road.

Needless to say, that weekend I also had another interesting episode. I almost got fined by a cop who claimed that I was trying to evade paying the bridge toll. He was parked at the side of the road near another exit for busses only. I went to him to try and ask if I could take the exit so that I could turn around since I was going the wrong way and didn't even need to get on the bridge. I had no cash to cross the bridge that I didn't need to cross. I missed my exit by less than a mile.

 But instead of listening to me, he claimed that I was trying to evade the toll and was being a jerk about the whole thing. The only reason I went to him was so that I could be an honest citizen and find out how I could turn around without evading any tolls.

We argued back and forth, and I tried and tried to explain that I live an hour away and that I needed to be in Emeryville and not San Francisco. I finally blurted out that I don't even live there. He then took my license to his car. I thought I was gonna get a fat fine for simply being honest. I was already late for my appointment and pissed at him for being a jerk so I started crying. I was really crying, the whole works.

When I he came back to my car, I wiped off my tears as best I could. He looked at me and told me that he was giving me a warning. He was about to stop the next offender and told me to just go, but that next time there would be more CHP lined up and ready to ticket me.

All in all, an interesting week.