An unplanned afternoon...

Tuesday September 1, 2015
Today will definitely be one of the most memorable first day of the months this year. Up until lunch time about the only notable point worth bringing up in conversation later was the fact that a lady at my gym recognized me from being a welcome greeter at my church, St. Brendan's in Hilliard. "Small world," the lady said. "Indeed."

After I got back from lunch there was a post-it note on my desk advising me not to log on to my computer since there was a virus in the system. No problem, I thought, as I picked up the 6" of papers that needed scanning into our company archives. Of course I had forgotten that I would be unable to save anything I scanned since our server was temporarily out of commission. Also, both our copy machines were tied up with a rather large copying job, so I went back to my desk and pulled out a magazine to read.

Just before 3pm, my boss came in and told me I could go home. Though I wanted to dash out the door before she could change her mind, my brain took over and asked her why since the phones were still working even if we couldn't do anything on the computer. She said our president said it was okay and that we'd still be paid, so I was free to go. And go I did, after I called our veterinarian's office to see if I could possibly move up the appt. for our cat, Tamsin, who was scheduled for her six month senior check-up at 6:30pm. I almost secured the 4:30pm slot, but just before we had it sewed up, the receptionist told me the appt. was filled while we were speaking. Failing that, I just headed over to the gym for my daily after-work work-out.

I ran a mile and a half before a stitch in my side prevented me from going any further, so I lifted some weights and then headed out. As I was walking to my car I saw a Ritz Cracker truck pull into the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel next door. Two trucks had been sitting in the parking lot for the past couple of days. I was curious what they were doing there, and wanted to take a picture loving all the multi-size crackers decorating the food truck. So, I drove over there and happened to see a guy and two girls unloading a few things from the back of one of the trucks. I got out of my car and went over to ask if they were doing any promotions in the area. The guy said they were and pulled out his phone to see where they were scheduled next. He told me they'd be at the Marc's store on West Henderson and somewhere called Hooverville or something like that. I told him I'd be unable to be at either one due to having to work all day, but asked if it was okay to photograph the truck. He said it was fine, so I went ahead and snapped a few shots. While I was looking at my photos he came over to me with three boxes of crackers - a box of Bacon, a box of Roasted Vegetable and a box of Ritz Bits (which I told him I had been eating earlier in the day with my sandwich at lunch). I thanked him and he went back and fetched me a coupon with some recipes on it. Three free boxes of crackers. Score!!!

Of course I immediately photographed my plentiful bounty and sent a text to my husband, Andrew (and later one to my sister, Karen). Just for the record, I am plenty willing to share, so my sister is getting the box of Bacon crackers while, at least for now, we hold on to the other two boxes (though I may bring in the box of Ritz Bits to where I work since it's thanks to getting out of work early that I even got the boxes of crackers).

When I got home I had a brief chat with my neighbor and his brother-in-law who was lying on the grass counting money. My neighbor told me he had just won $100 on a scratch ticket. I guess I wasn't the only one having a lucky day!

Have a good week everyone!