This time of year, it takes all of 13.6 seconds to lose all faith in humanity. You can score a People Suck achievement even faster if you go to Toys R Us, but I digress. Just because a woman gave me a, "I'm going to cut you, bitch" glare after I grabbed the last Monster High Doll a few days ago doesn't mean anyone needs to get their priorities back in line at all. Nope.
The Monster High Doll is going to Christmas Crazy, by the way. I say that just in case you were worried about my priorities and such. They are firmly focused on shiny and sparkly things for me to look at, not toys for my kid. She's on her own now that she has her own money, n'at.
Anyway, people do kind of suck. The only thing that is more obvious right about now is that Lindsay Lohan is a hot mess.
But.
But not all people suck. I know this because my inbox has been filled with stories of awesomeness as of late. Christmas Crazy has a way of slapping sense into me and making me realize just how generous and kind and fantastic some people really are. I truly think that anyone who does anything to make a stranger's day a little brighter, be it a smile or giving up a seat on a bus or just being kind when faced with rude behavior, is a superhero. But, sometimes I am fortunate enough to get to know a little bit about a few people who stand out.
And let me just say this: the readers of this site are The Best. It's no contest. I don't care if you have a blog that gets 1 million page views a day, my readers are The Best. Do you hear me? I WON THE READER SWEEPSTAKES.
So there.
(Yes, I'm talking about YOU. YOU are The Best.)
Anyway, I wanted to share a few stories about some of the people who have brought a smile to my face in the middle of this Season of People Suckage.
1. You know how I sometimes give stuff away over here? Real people win that stuff. I swear it. There was a time when I was giving away a $150 Walmart gift card. Instead of using it to buy groceries or electronics or a gun (the fact that you can buy a gun at Walmart has always disturbed me just a bit, so it sticks in my head), the person who won it was all, "Hey! I want to give this to Christmas Crazy!"
True story.
She won $150 to spend at a store that sells everything and she used it to buy toy helicopters for Christmas Crazy.
Awesomeness.
2. One person donated $500. I don't care who you are, that's a lot of money.
Awesomeness.
3. Two years ago, a person wrote me and thanked me for organizing Christmas Crazy because she was one of the women who had been able to provide a little Christmas magic as a result of the fundraiser. I won't get into details, but suffice to say she was in a bad place at the time.
This year she was able to donate. Paying it forward, if you will.
Awesomeness.
4. There were donations from three countries. THREE COUNTRIES. Only one of them was the United States.
Awesomeness.
5. There were donations from more than a dozen states. Christmas Crazy clearly benefits Pittsburgh-based organizations, but that didn't stop people from all over the country from donating.
Awesomeness.
6. Months and months and months ago, I got an email from someone who lives in Harrisburg saying something to the effect of, "Hey, I have a few toys for you. How can I get them to you?" Blah, blah, blah...I ended up meeting her at PodCamp and we carved out a few minutes for an exchange.
A "few toys" turned out to be an entire SUV filled with toys.
Awesomeness.
7. People who I know for a fact don't have spare pennies laying around all over the place gave up coffee for a few weeks or ate peanut butter and jelly for lunch for a month or did something else to squeeze some spare change out of their wallet just so they could donate.
Awesomeness.
8. I took to Twitter a few weeks to whine about the utter and complete lack of diversity in dolls. It's something I get all sorts of cranky about every year because, seriously, retailers are completely failing minorities when it comes to carrying dolls that look like normal kids. Take a walk down the Barbie aisle at Target and you'll see what I mean. There are dolls that aren't blond with blue eyes, but they are hard to find. Don't even get me started on the Amazon Effect, which basically says there should be a $10 surcharge if the words "African American" or "Hispanic" are in the toy description. Anyway, I complained about that fact to Twitter and just like magic, several not-Caucasian dolls found their way to me.
People bought dolls and paid shipping to get them to me in time for Christmas Crazy.
Awesomeness.
9. The total number of people who donated in some way, shape, or form? 112.
Awesomeness.
10. I have one more story of awesomeness, but the young man at the center of that story has earned a post all to himself. Soon.
This time of year, it takes all of 13.6 seconds to see that humanity is doing just fine. Just fine, indeed.
Thanks for helping to make sure I'm not the only one who will find good stuff under the Christmas tree this year.