Simple. Straightforward. Surprisingly engaging. (Ahem, AOK anyone?) And you said New Yorkers don’t do “nice.” They do, and they do it with a megaphone.

Thanks to Matthew Jensen for bringing this to our attention, and thanks to wooshii for bringing it to his.

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From our AOK team member, Lynn:Parking at Target on the weekend usually sucks, you’re on guard for all sorts of rotten driving behavior. Today, I was more than pleasantly surprised when a young woman and her son went towards their car, and it was the son who made eye contact and a gesture to alert me that this parking spot was soon going to be for me. What really struck is the age of the boy, maybe 7 or 8, and how proud he was to provide me this gift and exchange this silent pleasantry…well beyond his years….it was as if he’d been watching his mom for years do the same, and seeing how happy it made people, thought he’d give it try. I smiled and waved big time, and I could tell he thought it was cool to bond, if only for a moment, with a perfect stranger, on this nice gesture. AOK Observed!A few moments later, the boy gets out of his car and walks towards mine. For the life of me I can’t think of any reason this would need to occur…and I CONFESS that I was a little apprehensive…what could this boy want from me…was there any reason I should go back to my previous on guard position? Geez I hoped not…we’d just had such a perfect AOK moment! I rolled down my window…and the sweet little guy just wanted to tell me that ‘his mom was going to take a little while longer…she had to do something in the car’….WHAT…getting out of your car to tell me this…your AMAZING kid (I thought in my head)! He just didn’t want me to have to wait…he smiled..happy to impart this bit of important information…and boy did I smile back. The only thing I wish I could have taken back was my minor moment of apprehension…completely washed away as this kid melted my heart and made my day!

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I made a late-night Walgreens run earlier this week. I found myself in line behind a pair of young Korean guys, probably in their mid-twenties. My K-town neighborhood hosts a diverse array of people, Korean, Mexican, white, old, and young, and the Walgreens at 6th and Vermont caters to them all. The cashier at the register, a middle-aged Latino man, was the only person manning the front of the store, apart from a bored-looking security guard.This cashier was doing his best to stay on top of the growing line, zipping people through their checkouts as quickly as possible. While I found his efficiency alone worth appreciating (as the wee hours were upon us), he did not sacrifice sharing a warm greeting with each person he dealt with. When it came time for the empty-handed Korean guys to check out, they requested international phone cards and indicated they weren’t sure which to purchase, much less how to use them correctly. Despite a language barrier, in broken english and with a fair amount of body-language the Korean pair and the spanish-speaking cashier negotiated the ins and outs of the available cards to find a good option. The two young guys went happily on their way as I did shortly thereafter, one AOK observation richer. Kudos to all three, customers and cashier.

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At a local watering hole on Friday night, a group of revelers had an extra shot when they ordered a round and offered it to the table behind them. The recipient of said shot was grateful and thanked the group heartily when he left.

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So it was really, really windy in Seattle today – I don’t know how many miles per hour or anything, but there was enough for people to be laughing nervously getting knocked of balance at intersections.There was also a college-age guy on 5th and Pike playing acoustic guitar and singing his own song, selling cd’s that he’d obviously burned himself. As I was walking by, enough wind came in a single gust to blow a handful of his albums into the street. He caught his hat and guitar case but he basically just had to watch all his music fly away and he looked pretty unhappy about it.But oh man, the street was completely empty, so I just walked out and picked them all up while he shuffled his sidewalk studio back together. He was really happy about it – I’m sorry to say I missed the photo op, but I’m sure he would have accepted an invitation to take a picture with him, he was smiling hard.

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Hey guys, I’m here at Jiffy Lube and a guy was paying for the oil change with cash but they didn’t have sufficient change. A woman who was waiting alongside me said ‘I have change’ and she proceeds to get up and make change.The customer receiving change and the woman had a nice little banter and a smile about how she went to the casino last night ‘justifying’ why she had the various denominations.It was a subtle exchange, but I chuckled as she made her comment and it injected some levity into the otherwise boring experience of waiting for my car to be serviced.

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