So back to Vegas, of course. Friday night I ended up at a roulette table, at two in the morning, with someone fabulous. We were talking, he was gambling, I was watching. He was winning, and was very generous with the dealer, and would every now and then push a chip over to me as well. I looked down and they were $100 chips. I pushed them back over to him. He was insistent I keep them since it was "house money" anyway. We went back and forth about that a bit and ultimately I ended up with $300 worth of poker chips in my purse when I turned in.
The chips just sat in my purse the rest of the trip. I wasn't sure what to do with them. They were kind of special, because it was a really great night. Sunday morning (the day I was leaving), I cashed them in, still not sure what to do with the $300, but knowing I needed to spend that money thoughtfully.
After I had cashed them in I met up with my girlfriends for some food and hair of the dog. We had a couple of hours to kill before we headed to the airport so we did a little shopping at Caesar's, which is where we stayed for the work portion of the Vegas trip. We wandered through Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. Then we wandered into the Coach store.
A little background. My friend Amy planned the birthday portion of the trip. She found us a suite, which was no easy task because we were there during CES. She had a limo waiting for us at the airport, scheduled our spa appointments, made dinner and club reservations. She even got me a birthday shout out over the air from the cute young Southwest Airlines flight attendant who wished his "future ex-wife Clare a happy birthday." I was calling Amy my birthday Maid of Honor. She worked really hard to make it a great night for me, and it was such a great night.
Amy has three kids, works her tail off, never ever puts herself first, is constantly giving of herself and is generally just one of the best people I know. And whereas I have been known to occasionally splurge on something ridiculous for myself (or, perhaps, not so occasionally), Amy never does that.
So, back to the Coach store.
Amy comes to a full stop in front of a gorgeous Coach bag and just falls in love with it. Yes, that one right there. I look at it. $358. And in this flash of awesome inspiration that must have come from above, I grabbed the bag and took it up front and bought it for Amy. With $300 in cash and the rest on my card. I had been planning on getting Amy a gift certificate for a nice dinner anyway, but I knew in an instant what a better thank you would be.
The other girls caught on immediately to what I was doing, and why, and how, and loved it. Once Amy realized what was happening she tried to protest but as I explained - it wasn't my money. I knew I had been given that money for a reason...to do something cool with, and I knew this was it. Then all four of us cried. We all love Amy. Amy hasn't had the easiest go of it lately. We all knew Amy deserved that fun, awesome gift, and we all knew that was the right thing to do with the $300.
I have to say that was the very best moment of the trip for me. It wasn't a big generous act by me, because it wasn't my money, I was just the conduit to get something good to Amy. And it felt awesome to be that conduit. It felt better than all of the attention Wednesday night. Doing something good for someone else is perhaps the very best feeling in the world. I am inspired, by that experience, to give more. For not totally unselfish reasons. It feels good.
Tears...again. :)
ReplyDelete