Here's What Really Happened...

This week has been a busy week at work. I, as you know, sell greeting cards for a living, and we are eight weeks away from the biggest card holiday of the year. Therefore, not only do we have to sell cards every day (and sell 30% more than last year), but we have to accept a rather large number of boxes every day for shipment. Today it was 69. As fast as it comes in, it goes right back out. On top of that pressure, there are new rules concerning breaks and lunches. We have to take our unpaid 30-minute lunch before we hit the 5-hour mark during the day. As everyone in the world knows, laws collide with real life sometimes, so occasionally, one might have to clock out and back in for lunch, but actually take it sometime later. (Incidentally, if that breaks any laws or causes an investigation, consider the above paragraph to be fiction.)

When I did finally get a chance to sit down and eat, I went to a room off the main terminal at Grand Central; one side opens to 43rd Street and the other is simply a flight of steps leading down and into the terminal. I was sitting on a half-wall, and eating, when a lady walked past and said, "Enjoy your dinner." She said it quietly, and I barely heard her, but no one else was eating, so she must have been talking to me.

As I ate, I thought about the homeless outreach people that walk around the terminal and offer help to people sitting in the corners. I wondered what I would do if they came to me. I decided that given the chance, I would pull out my cell phone, call my job, and tell them I would not be back tonight, as I have been invited to a shelter.

I finished lunch and went back to work. Just before I left for the day, I told Pam, my boss, that I had been approached by the homeless outreach people and asked if I needed help. Almost before I got the story out, roared with laughter. She was reduced to tears. The story was so well received, that I told her I would post it on Facebook.

I wrote: "I was sitting in a room just off the main concourse at GCT today eating my lunch. Break time from work. Minding my business. The "homeless outreach" people came up to me and asked if they could help me. ???" The comments have been hysterical.

"Maybe you were punked?"
"Too funny!"
"Wardrobe redo?"
"Only you..."
"Wow"

And one..."Be thankful they cared enough to check on you..." This one made me feel bad, because it didn't happen, but it is cool that there are people work to reach out to those who really need it.