my life, my pace

So my husband and I braved the weekend and college kid crowd at Ikea today to get a bedframe for our new king bed. Needless to say, it was crowded. And annoying. The last straw was when this lady totally bumped into and then rubbed up against me as she walked behind me while I was in line. It wasn’t even a tight fit and she didn’t even bother apologizing like a decent human being. She was lucky that I had (wisely) chosen not to carry my Chanel because I surely would have kicked her ass if she had bumped into it instead of my ratty Coach purse. Yes, I know it was an accident. And yes, no harm done. But I’m just sick and tired of how rude we’ve become. A simple, “excuse me” would have taken less than two seconds to utter and would have sufficed.

We finally made it out in one piece only to realize that we had underestimated the size of the bedframe we had just purchased. Or overestimated the width of our Prius’ trunk. Either way, there was no way in hell we were going to fit the headboard in our car. We debated whether our other car, a Japanese sports car, would be able to hold it and decided that we had no choice but to try. So I ended up sitting outside of Ikea with our impossible cargo for an hour waiting for my husband to make the trip home and swap cars. It was not fun.

When he returned, it still looked like an impossible task, but my husband was convinced that it would fit. As we were trying to figure out how best to lift the box so that we could angle it into the trunk, we were surprised to hear the young man sitting on a bench nearby offer to help. I would have been less surprised if he had busted out laughing at us and our antics. But true to his word, he helped my husband lift and place the headboard into the car, saving me from having to do so. And yes, it did fit. Barely. And hanging out of the trunk by a foot. But we made it home…thanks to the kindness of a stranger, something that doesn’t happen too often anymore today and gives this jaded writer a sliver of hope that decent people still exist in this world.

At the same time, this event makes me ask myself if I would have done the same I were in that guy’s shoes (assuming that I would have been of help). I know that I would definitely consider helping. I just don’t know if I would act. Sad but true. What about you? What would you have done?