Skip to main content

the dirty thirty is rapidly approaching


i've been trying to decide what to do to celebrate my 30th birthday. i'm at a pretty amazing point in my life -- my parents and my brother, great friends, an awesome job. although i try to do small things throughout the year to be kind to others, i felt like maybe this should be a month of giving. thanks to pinterest and some googling i found other people (mostly stay at home moms) who celebrated their 30th birthdays with what they were terming "30 random acts of kindness".

 here's the thing -- once you sit down, make a list of things to do for others, and then execute these actions and watch people's reactions, these are no longer *random*. i also found that people were doing things that were often done out of pity or condescension (i.e. i gave a bag of toiletries that cost $5 to a homeless guy bc it was better than giving him $5 for drugs/booze -- that is verbatim what this chick said). part of altruism and philanthropy is giving without expecting anything in return. give purely to give. make some one else's day better. let someone who may go unappreciated know that they are noticed and their contribution is recognized and appreciated. really, what it amounts to is doing normal every day things that shouldn't be considered the exception, but should be the rule. 

 soooo, i set out to create my list of thirty *not so random* acts of kindness. doing one a day is probably too difficult with work, so i am planning on doing several a day here and there until i successfully leave my twenties and embrace the big three-oh. but like jay-z said, "thirty is the new twenty." ;) 

 ::my tentative list of thirty intentional acts of kindness::

 1. buy a gift from a randomly chosen person's public amazon wishlist
2. click for a cause - pick three websites where every time i click their donate button it will provide food, services, shelter, etc based on the charity -- do this every day. i'm using "click to give" and am supporting ending violence against women and two animal shelters.
3. donate a dollar every time a cashier asks at check out "would you like to donate a dollar to ____"
4. food/clothing drive for local shelter -- in progress
5. leave dollar bills in the toy bins at the local dollar store for kids to pick out a toy
6. make dinner for a friend
7. bake goodies for my amazing neighbors who have been so kind to me since i moved in actually ended up picking oranges from my trees and gave them a bag full
8. go through my house and find clothing to donate -- three bags of clothing off to salvation army in holly hill
9. leave quarters in candy machines in my city
10. leave a present for my mailman
11. a thank you to the hardworking nurses at the hospital
12. donuts for the firefighters near my house
13. leave a generous tip for a server even though this person did not impress me
14. create a 'date night' for a couple i know -- then babysit for them, too
15. tape quarters to the air machine at a gas station
16. leave stamps at the post office
17. write happy messages in chalk on my front sidewalk  rain washed it away immediately though! florida winter...
18. write a complimentary note about a hardworking employee to that person's boss -- wrote a note about a great Publix employee at my local store. He is the best!
19. tape a bag of microwavable popcorn to a local redbox -- people looked at me like i was nuts. 
20. return other shoppers' carts for them once they unload their groceries
21-23. bringing donuts to deserving recipients to be named later! 
24. give freebie coupons to shoppers in line behind me
25. appreciative post it notes
26. small get together with friends
27-29. pick items from a local teacher's classroom wishlist and purchase those items --  i found an elementary list from our old neighborhood and picked mrs. donnelly's class (lol) and got her three requested items. shipped them directly to her school. 
30. send flowers to an amazing friend for no good reason other than their awesomeness -- i think she loved them :) they were delivered to her work and she is awesome

 thoughts?? i welcome all input! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Did Not Cry

I did not cry. For two weeks I did not cry. As I laid there staring at the ultrasound monitor while the doctor kept adjusting the angle of the ultrasound wand, searching, hunting for a heartbeat, I did not cry. When we sat and tried to determine if our dates were “right” or if they could possible be “off” and the doctor spun his pregnancy calculator wheel to see if the measurements had any possibility of being correct, I did not cry. When the financial coordinator started asking about making our hospital copayment and for the first time I had to say that there was a chance the pregnancy was “no good”, I did not cry. Standing in the parking lot, reminding myself how to take a normal breath while my husband carefully looked me over, assessing to see if I was ok to safely drive the 45 minutes home, I did not cry. We waited ten days to find out that no, there was not a heartbeat, and no, the baby is not growing anymore. Still, I did not cry. I matter-of-factly...
Post a Comment
Read more

and four months later...

four months ago was demo work (well, August 4th to be exact)... then it was a major mold problem... then Ollie became incredibly ill, we thought we were going to lose him, and I was caravanning from my parents' house to work (read: two hours round trip) every day. however, four months later, a diagnosis and recovery from Pemphigus for Ollie, flooring down, new ceilings, updated electric, and lots of quality time with my parents, i am ALMOST done. big things have happened and between commuting, crazy long hours at work, too-frequent vet specialist appointments, and travel for work and holidays -- i present: PROGRESS!  --- let's take a step back and remember what we *used* to see in my kitchen --- --- and after cabinets and counters installed --- antique leather granite, oooooh.  so, we have not quite finishing toe kicks or baseboards, but door trim, handles, pulls, appliances (read: the first time this house as ever had a dishwasher, EVER) ins...
Post a Comment
Read more

furniture update

ok... so when the chick from the blog i got my inspiration from said that the first coat was scary she was not lying. the current shade of pink my chair has become is HORRIFYING. sometime during the application of paint to cushion number one i realized how terrifying the color was and was thrown into an uncontrollable fit of giggling which then led to crying. the chair is so ugly it is fugly. no bueno, people. the pink is a shade of pink i could not have even attempted to imagine. as it dries i believe the pink is becoming more magenta (which is, in fact, the shade i am trying to achieve in the longrun). they say this first coat is simply the primer coat and the next layer will be the beginning of the color taking shape. let's hope so. if there are furniture gods, i am praying to them tonight because this has me more than a little concerned that my final result will be 1. unpublishable and 2. an expensive trip to an upholsterer. i'm posting a pic so that if someone else wants t...
Post a Comment
Read more