Random Joys of an ADD Web Merchant

I won't track all the way back to the beginning of the cycle that made me late. I'm just not particularly linear in my approach to life, and I accept that.

Suffice it to say I began the day by madly rushing to get a coloring book ready to ship to a new customer.  I bundled everything into my computer bag and raced for the bus to my day job at Microsoft, and everything was relatively fine.  Well, OK.  I forgot my security badge; but our building receptionist is very understanding.

Every new customer is a monumental delight, and the thrill never abates; so the fact that I forgot, in my rush, to attach my cute Kat Green Store return address sticker, designed by my brilliant web designer, was only a gentle wobble on my otherwise serene journey to the nearby FedEx store during my lunch hour.  I cheerfully stuffed tissue paper around the bow on the gift-wrapped coloring book, sealed the box and regretted only mildly the blank upper left hand corner where my sassy stylized cat should have perched.

Just then, I heard another customer ask the clerk if he had any tissue paper.  "No, I'm sorry.  I don't," he said.  I had a fat wad of it, in an array of pastel colors.  I scampered right over to the lady and said "I have tons.  Here you go."  I enjoyed watching her out of the corner of my eye as I surrendered my package to be weighed.  She wrapped her gift in multiple layers of tissue and used several more sheets to cushion it in the shipping box.

The clerk smiled too and said, "What were the odds?"

Walking back to my office in the crisp Seattle sunlight, I remembered a Catholic lady I once met who said "Any time things work out smoothly, that's God.  Anytime they don't, that's you."  I got a kick out of that, and I have thought of if often through the years.  Maybe the lady who needed tissue paper was a good Catholic.