Thursday Thirteen: Sixes and Sevens

Tags: vancouver, thursday thirteen, thursday 13


Thirteen Things: 6 That Rankle, 7 That Please

1. Bad manners. Would it kill you to say excuse me, please and thank you?

2. Bus drivers who run red lights. I kid you not - I've seen it 3 times in the past 2 weeks, and this pedestrian feels like she ought to be carrying a giant stop sign or wearing a neon orange traffic vest...

3. Cell phone chatter. Specifically, folks who insist on talking long & loud in inappropriate places. It took all my self-discipline not to wrest the phone from the shrill woman who chatted up a storm about her child's bowel movements the other day, but I thought the other patrons in the library's cozy & crowded reading area would have been even more disturbed.

4. Office Slovenliness. I'm sure Lunchtruck is rolling his eyes right about now as I'm not exactly a neatnik, but when faced with an empty dishwasher and a sink full of dirty dishes in an office full of healthy, all-limbs-attached-and-working grown men, this girl gets ticked.

5. Using the last of the papertowel and leaving the empty roll there isn't going to make you popular with me either.

6. Saying OK instead of thank you.

There's hope though, because I've seen plenty of evidence that all of these still exist:

7. Help For the Lost: Living in such a popular area, I often see lost looking tourists squinting at their maps, trying to figure out which way is North. Vancouver has a great Downtown Ambassador program designed for this sort of thing, but I often see regular downtown folk taking time to help out visitors. Props to you all.

8. Sharing Space. As the square footage in downtown shops get smaller and tighter, the number of tables in coffee shops etc seems to be decreasing. Mix in the fact that there are lots of Vancouverites who take themselves out for coffee, and you have a lot of singles sitting at tables for two (or four). So what's happening? People are starting to get used to the idea of sharing space with a stranger. And even better, they're making nice.

9. Being Nice to The Tourists. On off-shoot of Help for the Lost, I can't count the number of times I've seen someone stop in their tracks to take a shot of two or more travellers together. After all, who wants a collection of shots where one of you is consistently missing?

10. Giving Way. Yet another small act, but I've been seeing more of it. A person who's in a hurry, or has a cranky child, or is otherwise harried, is given the opportunity to jump in line by the person in front of them. I saw that as recently as yesterday's lunch hour. It may have been a small thing for the lady who did it, but instantly energized the crowd waiting for their coffee.

11. Smiling. I know, I know - iIt sounds like filler. But that's probably the number one thing that I've seen more of lately, and genuinely expressed, it has the ability to brighten the days of a great number of people.

Except the perpetually grumpy. But that's another post.

12. Spontaneous/Random Acts of Kindness. There was a young man handing out flowers the other day, for no other reason than that he could. Loved it.

13. Thoughtful Gestures Despite The Odds. Ok, this one is spouse-specific. He's been making a real effort to be nice to me, even though I've been a cranky little git for weeks. I do love him. He pleases me most.


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Beck
2. Denise
3. Megan
4. Kailana
5. Jenelle
6. Ageless
7. Joe
8. Christina
(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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