The bit with the speeches is too much, that's just an imposition. "Show your gratitude! Show how much you love us!" Even in the Victorian era, where the well-to-do made even more of a production of obvious charity, there were articles about how rude and condescending it was to force yourself on the poor who had better things to do.

The thing is, I am pretty sure everyone is just trying to be nice, and the school that I work with has just grown SO MUCH that instead of 10 or 20 people chipping in for a gift for 2 people, it is 200 people chipping in for a gift for 3 people.

Random question of the day: What's the last random act of kindness you participated in? (either as the doer or the receiver)

What's the last random act of kindness you participated in?

I was shopping at lunch yesterday, and I was next in line for the cashier, and a woman with an armload of clothes to buy was methodically making her way through the line behind me, telling people she had to be at a doctor's appointment in 10 minutes and asking them if she could go in front of them. So I let her go in front of me (despite thinking "Put the clothes back and COME BACK after your appointment, honey.").

I got up with the kid at 5:20AM even though it was DW's turn. To be fair, though, she does the same for me often since I'm PG.

Someone drove right through an enormous puddle yesterday, which sucked because I was soaked to the knees, but someone two cars behind her made a point to stop and say that he saw it and he was appalled, and sorry that it happened. Which didn't make me any drier, but did make me feel a lot better.

What's the last random act of kindness you participated in

I give directions to tourists a lot. I don't know if that counts.

I have resumes to read and people to interview tomorrow. I've never been on the other side of the desk before!

As someone who has tried to navigate around Chicago recently, I say it counts a hell of a lot.

My neighbor who let me back in to the building this morning.

I was in Joann's waiting to get the pink tulle cut. They have a "take a number" system, and I pulled #8 out of the dispenser, and rocked back on my heels. Darling kid, maybe eight years old, comes up to me and says "Here--have #7." My guess was that she'd been playing with it to somehow explain the extra ticket. When they called my number (7), the woman next to me said "Oh! I didn't know there were numbers." So I handed her #8 so she'd be next up after me.

By the time I got to the checkout, there was something in the crap they line the queue with that looked like an alternative to what I'd picked up in the store. So I stopped and evaluated it, and then went back into the line. In the time while I'd been doing that, a woman have moved past me, and she said "You were ahead of me--you just stopped to look at something--go on ahead" but I told her to keep the spot. It was no biggie.