Promise-ary Note: Stranger Found, Mission Accomplished

So I learned that 8:30 in the morning is not grocery store prime time.  I left the house this morning with the idea that I would buy groceries for someone today.  I didn't just want to give someone money, and I wanted to be generous in a way that was truly helpful to someone, so I went first to the Grocery Outlet in Oregon City.

For some reason, I've always considered this store a lower end store, and I thought I might find someone there who was really on a tight budget, trying to make ends meet.  Understand that I am basing all of this on appearance and assumption, and I also know that you can't judge a book by its cover.  I know that the way someone looks won't necessarily reflect their socio-economic status, so forgive me for judging people this way, but I thought it would be okay to decide who would get my money, even if I didn't know them personally.  The store was dead, so I moved on.

I went to Safeway in Oregon City because it was the closest grocery store to Grocery Outlet.  Much the same.  The store was dead and I didn't find anyone that I was "dying" to give my money to there.  I moved on.

I wound up at Fred Meyer's in Oregon City.  The store was much busier, and I had plenty of people to choose from.  When I left Safeway, I asked myself, "Who are you looking for?"  As I thought about it, I realized I wanted to give my money to a young family or an older man/woman.  I wanted to help out those starting their families or the elderly.  Those were the shoppers I was looking for.  So I began wandering the store.

Let me just say that I felt a bit like a creeper wandering the store and eyeing up the customers.  I walked up and down the front and back of the store looking for candidates.  I found two mothers, each with two kids, and an older woman.  Each of them also had enough stuff in their carts that my $50 would probably only put a dent in their overall grocery bill, or just cover it.

Finally, in produce, I stumbled upon this woman (again, I felt like a creeper taking this picture.)  She had a cart of groceries, most of them produce and healthy options, and a two twin boys sitting in the cart.  She was in sweats with her hair in a ponytail, and she had that look on her face that I instantly recognized.  She was a stay-at-home parent of two young kids (maybe 9 months to a year), and she was tired.  I instantly wanted to give her the money, but I didn't want to make a scene about it.  So I went to the checkstands and began flipping through magazines.  Again, the feeling of being a creepy stalker guy overtook me.  Am I weird for feeling this way?  I'm trying to do something nice for someone at random, but I couldn't help but feel like a weird-pervy guy.

When the woman finished shopping, I went to the far side of the checkstand, interrupted the checker and handed her the $50.  I asked if she would apply it to the bill of the next person in line, the woman from produce.  The checker looked at me and asked if she was my wife.  I told her she wasn't and her eyebrow raised at me.  I didn't give her a chance to say anything further as I didn't want the produce woman to really see me, so I walked away without another word.

I walked to the far side of the store, all the way over to hardware and browsed around for a while to kill some time.  I wanted to ask the checker what the woman's reaction was, but I didn't want to get caught by the woman or to feel like the creepy stalker guy.

When I finally approached the checker, she broke into a smile when she saw me.  "You'll never guess what her total came to."

"No way," I said.

"Fifty-one dollars and five cents."

"That's funny."

"Why did you do it?" the checker asked.

"Because I promised I would be generous to a stranger this week.  Thanks for helping me out."

"Thank you," she said with a smile.

It made my day.