Good Deeds

Hey Folks,

On a fifteen minute break here at work, so I'm gonna throw up a little update on some random things that have happened to me this evening. As many of you know, I work at the front desk at the Westin Nova Scotian in Halifax. Through consistent face-to-face interaction, I have developed automated responses to making eye contact with people anywhere and everywhere. More than a nod, I'm often saying 'hello', or 'how are you?' and then people tend to look at me blankly and hurry on with their lives.

Well today I said hello on Barrington St, and a gentleman actually stopped. Taken aback, I stopped too. He had a wide smile, and and asked quite genuinely how I was today. I gave him a typically Canadian response, saying I was well, and asked him how he was. Apparently he had just finished work and was heading home. Must've been a productive day. And with that, we waved good bye and I moved on, my mood sunnier for the meeting.

Then I got to work. And all was well. I'm back on the desk and things are going fairly smoothly. I then have an interaction with a homeless man who can't speak. 99% of the time, this means that we send out a message to get the homeless person out (bad for business you know). But he was fairly clean, and it was quiet, so I wound up helping him out. He laid out his papers, and pointed to the word 'shelter'. So, with a wave of my hand, I brought up Google and found Halifax shelters, found the closest one for men, and got him directions as well as instructions for the bus so that he could get there. Took probably about 15 minutes communicating through pads of paper and hand signals, but we were finally able to get him on his way to a bed for the night. I just hope he makes it and is alright.

Anyway, just wanted to share these couple of experiences I had today that served to make me feel pretty good inside.

Cheers all

Lunch Break Fixer

Just a quick fix from my last post:

Ask Ally is not on hiatus, the blog just has less frequent postings due to the January craziness that Grad Students endure. However, still feel free to ask questions, and remember that if life is handing you lemons, Ally has great recipes for lemonade - and/or a slingshot with which to shoot lemons back at life in a sneaky counter-attack. I'm sure zombies also hate lemons - but I'm no expert, she'll have confirm or refute that.

Cheers all