paying it forward: newlywed mission accomplished
A little under a month ago, queenortart (who I know via Intercon, but am not sure we've ever been face-to-face introduced) posted to interconlarp with a call for help. She was looking for NYC and Boston-area folks to help her surprise a pair of honeymooning friends with special gifts without spending an arm and a leg having the hotels do it.
I have a strong romantic streak and really really really really really really love surprises, and like making the world a place where this kind of thing happens (in the hopes that someday it will happen to me.) So I volunteered. Over the weekend, queenortart emailed me saying that Mr. and Mrs. X were in Y hotel in Boston, staying until Wednesday the 7th, my budget was $100-150, and they already received champagne and Godiva chocolates in NYC. Go crazy.
This email very, very nearly got lost in the shuffle of the past few days, which would have made me incredibly sad. Instead, when my tabletop game got canceled last night but I was trying to plan with zapf something else to do, my eyes fell on it and I realized I had only last night to enact this plan.
So huge ginormous thanks to zapf for driving me around last night. We hit up the Wine and Cheese Cask in Somerville, where I got all wide-eyed and clueless at the staff in return for a recommendation on a (rather expensive, to me) bottle of rosé and a triple-cream cheese to go along, with a couple different types of cracker. We tried Burdick's next in hopes of getting some chocolate-dipped $FRUIT, but it had JUST closed. :( Stopped by Target just to get a little wicker basket to lay everything in, and while I'm slightly ashamed of it, got a small amount of Hershey's Bliss chocolates (with melty raspberry center) just to scatter at the bottom of the basket. The final piece of the puzzle was a bunch of big fat red globe grapes from Shaw's. We arranged it all in the basket and headed off to the hotel. The front desk wouldn't give us the room number of Mr. and Mrs. X, which is fine because they instead offered to deliver our basket. We dashed off a quick note (I did not actually write, "Congratulations on your nuptials!" in fancy, flowy script like I wanted to) wishing them well from their anonymous Boston benefactors, stuck it in the basket, handed it off to the staff, and considered MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I just really, really hope the hotel in fact delivered the basket!
I got monetarily paid back for all of that, plus queenortart might bring something special from England to Intercon for me this year. But the whole plan was more about paying it forward than getting paid back.
I have a strong romantic streak and really really really really really really love surprises, and like making the world a place where this kind of thing happens (in the hopes that someday it will happen to me.) So I volunteered. Over the weekend, queenortart emailed me saying that Mr. and Mrs. X were in Y hotel in Boston, staying until Wednesday the 7th, my budget was $100-150, and they already received champagne and Godiva chocolates in NYC. Go crazy.
This email very, very nearly got lost in the shuffle of the past few days, which would have made me incredibly sad. Instead, when my tabletop game got canceled last night but I was trying to plan with zapf something else to do, my eyes fell on it and I realized I had only last night to enact this plan.
So huge ginormous thanks to zapf for driving me around last night. We hit up the Wine and Cheese Cask in Somerville, where I got all wide-eyed and clueless at the staff in return for a recommendation on a (rather expensive, to me) bottle of rosé and a triple-cream cheese to go along, with a couple different types of cracker. We tried Burdick's next in hopes of getting some chocolate-dipped $FRUIT, but it had JUST closed. :( Stopped by Target just to get a little wicker basket to lay everything in, and while I'm slightly ashamed of it, got a small amount of Hershey's Bliss chocolates (with melty raspberry center) just to scatter at the bottom of the basket. The final piece of the puzzle was a bunch of big fat red globe grapes from Shaw's. We arranged it all in the basket and headed off to the hotel. The front desk wouldn't give us the room number of Mr. and Mrs. X, which is fine because they instead offered to deliver our basket. We dashed off a quick note (I did not actually write, "Congratulations on your nuptials!" in fancy, flowy script like I wanted to) wishing them well from their anonymous Boston benefactors, stuck it in the basket, handed it off to the staff, and considered MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I just really, really hope the hotel in fact delivered the basket!
I got monetarily paid back for all of that, plus queenortart might bring something special from England to Intercon for me this year. But the whole plan was more about paying it forward than getting paid back.