gnomi | Random Kindnesses and Memories Found at the T Stop

Last night, as I was leaving the grocery store, I realized a card that I usually carry in my wallet was missing. This was an annoyance but not calamitous, so after checking the logical places around home, I figured I'd check the environs of my work desk and then, if I couldn't find it, I would replace it.

This morning,

mabfan and I were running slightly late due to the vagaries of the Green Line and the subsequent impact on our babysitter's commute. We were discussing something I cannot remember anymore, but I stopped in my tracks when I looked at the light pole near where we were standing. There, tucked into the top of a random flyer taped to the pole, was my missing card.

We then got on the train that arrived. Now, I have a habit of saying "good morning" to the train operator (though I am usually one of the only ones who do so), and this morning was no different. I greeted the driver, and I realized it was a driver I knew, whom I'd seen a number of times while I was unemployed and taking the T back and forth between home and Coolidge Corner. But this morning was the first time he'd seen me and

mabfan together in a while. And he remembered that he had last seen us together when Muffin and Squeaker were tiny. In fact, he was the T driver the first time we took Muffin and Squeaker on the T, when they were all of five days old. He was so excited, he asked about how the girls were doing, and he was very surprised it had been almost 2.5 years since he'd seen them.

It was a lovely way to start my morning -- not only did I get back some lost property, but

mabfan and I got a chance to take some extra pride in our girls, seeing them through the eyes of someone who had met them and been charmed by them.