To the young lady in the parking lot: THANK YOU!

As a teacher, this has been an amazing week.

Almost as phenomenal as last week.

The pessimist in me thinks Karma wants to spank me for all that good luck.

My car is due, well overdue, for its 70,000 mile check up.

It was scheduled for today, but I had to change it to tomorrow.

After my other appointment, I went to the grocery store.

By the time I was done, it was dark outside.

I got in the car, started it, and started to pull out of my space.

At which point my car died.

Half way in the drive, at an awkward angle.

I almost got it started like ten times.

I was becoming understandably frustrated.

Tomorrow I have scheduled service. To-mor-row.

The last time I took my car in for maintenance, there were also issues.

A week later my transmission went kaput.

Less than a thousand miles after the warranty expired.

So having another breakdown almost exactly 10,000 miles later is beyond messed up.

I drive a nice car. 

A VW GTI. 

There are only two reasons to drive a VW GTI:

1. They are fast and fun.

2. They are dependable.

Or not, if you own mine.

Anyway, I pulled out my phone and stepped out of the car, kicking it for good measure.

My intention was to text my boyfriend and then call for a tow.

A young woman a few cars away called out.

She asked if everything was ok.

I said yes, but my car just died.

She immediately set down her groceries and came over.

After asking a few questions and informing me that she was a trained mechanic, she decided I needed a jump start.

She pulled her car over, got out her cables, and hooked us up.

Ten minutes and nice chat later, my car was running.

Then did the kindest thing of all:

She asked my permission to follow me home to make sure I got there safely.

The funny thing is, though we had a really pleasant conversation, we never exchanged names.

Both of us are educators in neighboring districts, but that is all I know.

So what started out as karmic vengeance turned into an awesome experience where a perfect stranger went way out of her way to help me, just because she could.

I want to say thank you.

I wish I could.

Being able to show how much I appreciated her help, and her incredibly positive attitude, would be great.

Since I can't, I am writing this post.

I'd like to think maybe her teachers had, over the years, a little to do with how she turned out.

Regardless, the whole encounter was a really good thing.