The Story of the Starbucks Gift Card

During the holidays I won a $5 Starbucks gift card from Tippy Toes and Tantrums as part of the Yahoo! Kindness Project, or Yahoo! For Good. (Check out all the awesome things she did here.) Anyway, I received the card and tucked it away in my wallet for safekeeping. My original plan was to leave it in the mailbox for our mailman since we'd been experiencing some pretty crappy weather and I thought the prospect of a warm latte might brighten his spirits. Of course, given The Mommy Brain, I completely forgot about it and ended up buying him a Target gift card to go along with our baked goods for his holiday gift.

Then, when I went to New York to see MARTHA, I intended to leave it behind in my friend's husband's car since he was so kind as to pick me up from the subway late at night to bring me back to their place to crash since my friend was (is) very preggars and too sick to drive to get me. He is also a coffee addict. I think we were so busy talking about the baby, parking in NY and their crazy life as medical residents that I came and went without leaving the giftcard behind. Sigh.

Fast forward to yesterday when my friend and I ran across the street from our Junior League meeting to grab a hot drink amidst the latest snowstorm. I was gonna whip out my card and treat her to a cup of coffee, when she beat me to it and whipped out a gift card of her own and paid with it.

I thought to myself: "I'm never gonna treat someone with this doggone card!"

And so, on my way home from the meeting, Hubby called to tell me that my sister was stranded in the Target parking lot because her car wouldn't start. I headed up that way to see what I could do. [As an aside, I asked him: "What am I gonna do to help her?" and he said "Go into Target and buy jumper cables." To which I replied: "And then what???"] I arrived and we strategized about our next move. To our delight we saw a snow removal truck in the parking lot. My sister jumped out and asked him if he could give her a jump. The guy was so kind as to oblige. After we got her VW Bug up and running, he was about to get back into his truck. I screamed "WAIT!" and ran to my car and dug out the Starbucks gift card and ran back to give it to him in thanks. He was quite happy and honked as he plowed off.

At last! I was able to put the card to good use. I suppose the card was waiting for the right person for me to give it to.

The End.