National Cookie Day

It’s been a day. And it’s not even over. The ups! The downs! All of the feelings!

I started my day with a swim in Wright’s Pond. To say it is delightful is an understatement! I’m excited to go regularly and get my body moving in a new way. I get bored with the usual walks (I’m grateful Harlow can’t read. How insulting!) And I do mean a new way! I haven’t swam in so long and I am truly terrible at it. Actually, time has nothing to do with it. I’ve never been a good swimmer. The good thing is, I’m sure I will (hopefully?) start to see improvement by way of me sinking less over time and with some practice.

I swim the length of the lane (you can see the floaty bobby things marking the lane in the photo above) and back again which according to Google maps is about 140 feet total. It takes me eight minutes to go that far. I am a turtle.  It’s a lot of work for me. You can imagine my disappointment when I logged my wimpy swim and learned I burned only 34 calories while trying my best not to die by drowning. I think I deserve more than that.

After my swim I started my late shift (which I am currently taking an afternoon break from to write this) by photographing chocolate chip cookies. Apparently National Cookie Day is a thing, and I was given three shops, none of which are anywhere near each other in Boston and Cambridge of course, to visit.

The first was in South Boston. I explained to the owner that I was providing images for a listicle (a “listicle” is a cross between a list and an article) about where to find great cookies in the city. It’s free advertising for the shop, and as is usually the case, they offer up a cookie for me to shoot free of charge. The owner told me the woman behind the counter, I’ll call her “Tina”, would help me when she was done with the customer she was with.

The customers left, and as Tina pulled out a chocolate chip cookie for me, another customer came in, saying “Oh, I’m just looking at the moment” when she was asked if she could be helped.

Tina put the cookie on a wax paper on the counter about eight feet away from me, and I asked if she wouldn’t mind bringing it to the other end where the light was nice and there was this fun window fringe in the background. She mumbled something, and I said “I’m sorry?” because I couldn’t hear her.

“It’s just that I’m really busy helping customers” she repeated with annoyance as she came over and put the cookie in front of me in a bit of a huff, and hurried back over to be helpful to the one customer in the place, who was the same woman who just said “Oh I’m just looking at the moment”

There was no cupcake, cookie, or tart assistance emergency happening here.

Her attitude pissed me off, to put it bluntly. As if I were posing as a photographer for a free cookie, not someone doing her job and in doing so providing free advertizing for her place of employment. It occured to me that I may have seemed lazy with my request, and I considered explaining that I asked her to move the cookie for me because I didn’t want to make the cookie unsellable by touching it myself with my bare hands. However, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to explain in a way that wasn’t “bitchy”, so I just went ahead and did my job. The job that results in bringing in more customers for her to be very busy and important with helping.

I photographed the cookie, said “thank you”, considered adding a Sorry for your trouble! but didn’t, and headed out. She said after me “You can have (the cookie)!”

“No thank you!” I already have a bad taste in my mouth. That cookie will not be enjoyed. Plus, it’s a milk chocolate chip cookie and those are just jokes anyway.

From there I fumed a bit while driving forever to find the next location. Once I parked the car, I brought only my company credit card (in case I need to buy the next cookie), my camera, and my phone, in an effort to lighten my load.  I waited in line and asked about the their cookie. They weren’t carrying them at the moment. Apparently their baker left the company and they have not yet bought the cookie recipe from her (they are an ice cream shop). Ah well!

As I walked back to my car, I looked down at my phone and found that a woman named Melissa was requesting to message with me via Facebook Messenger. I wondered if it was a potential new client. I didn’t recognize the name. I clicked on it and read her message “I think I found your corporate credit card on Binney Street!”

Faith in humans restored!

Thank you Melissa, for being such a nice person! She found my credit card, and tracked me down on Facebook. I met her in the lobby of her super swanky apartment building two steps away, thanked her profusely, and joked with her about what a dingbat I am for putting it in the back pocket of my loose-fitting pants. She said “It’s the weirdest thing – the other day I found a woman’s purse and tracked her down, and then I lost my credit card and someone tracked me down and returned it! It just keeps happening!”

Yes, nice things keep happening too!