This morning, a man I sometimes see at the bus stop and with whom I have had maybe three very superficial conversations whilst waiting for the bus said "Good morning" and "I made you a playlist." He then handed me his iPod and said he'd getting it back from me next time he saw me. (We're only at the bus stop at the same time about once every 10 days).

I had class last night, and I didn't know the woman who sat down next to me, and I got all socially awkward and just kind of dug through my backpack so I didn't get into that weird "We don't know each other, so we're staring ahead awkwardly" thing while all the other students were chatting, and she looked over at me and smiled and said, "Hi, I don't think I know you!" and introduced herself and offered me some of her potato chips and told me funny stories and was awesome.

Oh! And! The other day I was at an event, and I was helping organize it but I didn't know any of the attendees because I am an assistant-level person and they were all director-level people from different organizations, and a woman came over and said, "I'm going to stand by you because you laughed at my joke when you gave me my name tag," asked me about my academic background (she was a professor), and then proceeded to tell me funny stories about my old university professors and was awesome.

People can be so nice sometimes. It's awesome.

Sometimes when some weirdo is attempting to palpate my ovoids, a sharp blow between the eyes is enough to render them not only helpless but apologetic for both their presumption and ineptitude, which they supplement with cash until they fall unconscious and are carted away by prearrangement, since this seems to be so common a problem they are prepare for the contingency.

Yesterday I was feeling super frustrated at work because I was having a hard time finding things and was just generally feeling like I was failing really hard. Towards the end of the day, I was feeling like leaving early and saying FUCK IT but when I came out of the back, my co-worker had made me a fresh cup of hot chocolate and given me some easy to find articles, swiping the ones I was struggling with. It was so awesome and snuggly-feeling inducing.

(ibmcginty - avoid the grey, seriously. I feel so much better since I gave it up)

During bowling league, there's a bit of ettiquette that you're supposed to wait for the person on either lane next to you to finish bowling before you go. Lots of times, two people will step up to the lane at the same time, and everyone is so polite and "go ahead", "no you go", "no, I was just wiping off my ball, you can go". It's a little bit silly, but sweet and always cheers me up.

i forgot my DDs, how is that possible?

I am just thinking that if a guy didn't have an ipod and wanted to share a playlist:

"Here is my Dell desktop. I hope you have a monitor and speakers. There is a playlist on Winamp with your name on it. I'll get it back next time I see you on the bus."

Hmm. Come to think of it, that girl never gave me my computer back.

And if he had no computer:

(handing Crushonastick a piece of paper) "Here's a playlist I made for you. Just sing the songs to yourself. If you don't know them, just search Limewire for them. I'll get it back from you next time I see you on the bus."

My story is a couple summers ago. A hot day. Wife and I are driving to Portland. A tire blows, and Wife did a good job of getting over the shoulder on the freeway. We then get it up a ramp into this dirt lot. A very isolated area (for I-5).

Turns out I have these attachments on my wheels for a winter-time traction device (these) and I don't have anything in the car to get the bolts off, in order to get to my lugs. Tried jumper cables, to twigs pressed together, fingers, nothing. We were screwed.

Plus, I had on this brand new black t shirt, and it was in the direct sun. Not helping.

We see a guy walking across a field towards us. He had seen us in the distance and stopped about 1/4 mile up the freeway and walked back to help.

Plus, he had a Leatherman so was able to get the bolts loose, then, in the bargain, helped me get the spare on.

I got his address (in Corvallis) but lost it before I could drop off the bottle of wine I planned on giving him.

But I think grateful thoughts about him, all the time.

(Yeah, I stepped away from MetaTalk last night when I started noticing the favorites.)

Hmmm ... A very nice MetaChat person offered to help fix my kid's computer. That was awesome.

The people at the corner store across the street have always been nice to my foster kids, even at their worst, when half the neighborhood hated me and them.

In the past, during times when I was really sick with depression, I remember that sometimes the "normal" people would ignore me, but the homeless people would be nice to me.

My mom is really nice to me.

My friend Derrick comes over sometimes and helps me with stuff, like putting batteries in the smoke detectors (I'm too short).

When we were moving into our current apartment (4th floor walkup) last June, our new neighbour (in his 50s), on the 5th floor introduced himself as he was walking into the building and then asked what he could take upstairs for us. We demurred, but he insisted, saying that he'd lived there for 20 years and having to walk up many flights of stairs several times a day taught you to never do it without being helpful. We thought that was awesome, and have made a point of helping other people who are coming up the stairs loaded down with shopping or whatever.

I live in a driving city but have no car, so I walk 40 minutes to work every morning. Which isn't actually so bad; it's good exercise and good thinking time. But I leave for work at 6 am, so it's still quite dark and, since it's a driving city, there aren't really good sidewalks anywhere, so it's a little dangerous.

Anyway, so a woman at work, who I don't actually work with but sort of know, found this out and this week has started coming by my house at 6 am to pick me up so we can go to work together in her car.

I don't know many people in this town, but boy does that make me feel less alone here.

I like this thread. Sometimes all of the complain-y threads here get me down. This one is really nice.

Yesterday, I received a surprise gift in the mail from an ex-boyfriend/current friend. It was a pack of hi-liters with tabs in them (you'd know them if you saw them). He says he thinks of me when he sees hi-liters (due to the excessive number that I used when I was in grad school). It's always fun to receive snail mail and little gifts and to know that someone was thinking of you.

My friend McBeth sent me a late X-mess prezzie recently -- it was awesome. Funny gewgaws and pretty lingerie and some other random nice stuff all in a box for me to open. Yay!

mosessis, that is really cool.

One of the guys here at work, whom I vaguely know, handed me his business card the other day and told me to call him any day, anytime I needed a ride to or from work. He's also a cyclist but usually drives.

Then I met this fun, funny, awesome lady on the ski lift at Copper the other day. I'm a hilariously terrible skier, so while the mister was off boarding in the trees / double-blacks / extreme stuff, I went and spazzed out all over the bunny hill and got pwn3d by 8-year-olds. Then I met Joan from Texas, who attempted to claim the dubious prize of being an even lousier skier than I, although I seriously doubt it. We skied for about three hours together, and made starfish and snow angels and lawn darts and had hot chocolate and in sum, had a humongous grand old time.

When I moved to Boston (10 years ago! eep!), I flew up there from Austin on a Saturday for a job that started on Monday. I was living way out in the 'burbs and didn't really know how to get to work in the city, so that Sunday was dedicated to a practice run for my commute. (20 minute walk to the bus stop, 15 minute ride to the T station, 45 minute ride to Haymarket, 15 minute walk to the office.)

So anyway, on the bus ride home I stopped at a store I'd seen to pick up some food. It being Sunday, I had to wait until the top of the hour for the next bus to come along again. I'm sitting there waiting, shivering. It was winter and very cold. It was my first day in Boston. I didn't know anyone. I hadn't acclimated to the weather and didn't have the right clothes. It was starting to rain. I was starting to get weepy.

An old woman came along and sat down on the bench next to me, started chatting. I told her that I'd just flown into to town the previous evening. She told me that she'd lived within 2 blocks of that bus stop for all of her 70+ years. She was on her way to play bingo at the Knights of the Columbus hall. Her name was Agnes.

She was very kind to me. Told me I'd love Boston once I got used to it. Then, after we talked for a while, this big green Oldsmobile comes screeching to a stop up the block. It then flies into reverse and stops right in front of our bench. It was a friend of the old woman. She was on her way to bingo too, so she stopped (and then reversed, in traffic) to offer her friend a ride.

My new 70-year-old friend Agnes, the only person I knew in Boston, got into the warm car and they drove off.

Then the car stopped in traffic, again, and reversed, again, to the bus stop.

Agnes rolled down the window and yelled to me, "Get in, honey, we're going to take you home."

And they did. They drove out of their way to take me and my groceries home. They were probably late for bingo.

It was my first experience with Bostonians and it was such a relief, because I was, of course, anticipating the steely, chilly East Coast type.

It all went downhill from there, when Bostonians proved to be just that. But on that first day, that cold, cold day, Agnes and her bingo buddy provided a much needed glimmer of hope.

Thanks for the stories, guys and gals!

One time, I was sort of minorly humiliated in front of a 100-plus-person class.

As I was getting coffee in the cafeteria afterward, a girl in the class who I kind of admired for being really smart and well-prepared, came up and patted me on the back and chatted. It was shocking to me how much that simple gesture and small amount of effort cheered me up.

So I still remember it now, 5 years later, and probably won't forget about her-- even though her roommate at the time, when I ran into her a couple years later, couldn't remember her name!

I can't forget how nice JanetLand was to receive and readdress the slippers I ordered from an American company that doesn't ship to Canada.

I found out our company has Peer-to-Peer recognition awards, so I nominated a guy in our group that's helped me out a lot.

That is all.

(ibmcginty - avoid the grey, seriously. I feel so much better since I gave it up)

I wish MetaFilter would spin off the meetup-related stuff into another sub-section of the site. That way, I would never have to look at MetaTalk again.

jason's_planet: me, too! then we could add the "i'm going to this nonmeet-up event, but wouldn't mind having a drink with mefis before/after or to go with" events that some people clearly want to post!