My Random Act

Call it kindness if you will. Maybe it was. But I always feel like kindly punching people in the face when they talk about random acts of kindness. So we'll just call it random, what I did. And it probably won't happen again for quite some time.

If your not familiar (and I'm not sure why you would be), the elevators in the Hancock Tower are double-deckers. Going up, you can only request even or odd floors, depending on whether you get on in the lobby or the mezzanine. Going down, its always a crap shoot, whether you'll get a "lobby" or a "mezzanine" car, ie, whether you're on the top or the bottom (though no one thinks of it that way).
The nice thing about being (near) the top of my elevator shaft (the southern-most shaft services L-16, and I'm on 14), is that you can push the button for both up and down, and generally you'll get two cars at the same time (there are six bays, or a total of 12 cars, if you do the math), and generally the "up" elevator will be a lobby, and the "down" elevator will be a mezzanine. So by pressing both up and down, you have a good chance of getting a lobby.
Of course, I haven't mention why this is so important. It is important because no one, for some strange reason, likes to have to walk the 15 feet from the elevator door on M to the escalator down to L. I'm not kidding. Its really 15 feet. And the escalator does the walking down for you.
Anyway, just about everyone on 14 (though not every last person, as you still get an occasional odd look when its 6 pm and you press the "up" button) presses both buttons to go down at night after work, so that they can avoid the dreaded M.
This wasn't my strategy tonight however, as I had the one circumstance that required an actual "M" elevator - I needed the UPS drop box, of which there isn't one on "L". Still, I pressed both buttons, as you never know when you might press "down" and still get an "L".
Coincidentally, a girl who I don't know that well, who works on the other side of the floor, walked into the elevator lobby on 14. She too had a UPS package.
As the two cars arrived nearly simultaneously, one on each side of the hall, the strangest thought occurred to me: I could do something quasi-sort-of nice for someone; hoping that she new the up-elevator "L" trick, I offered to take her UPS package to "M" on the "bad" elevator, while she got the good one to the Lobby.
Momentarily I thought my so-called-kindness had been mis-understood - she gave me a bit of an odd look - before she said "really? you would do that?" Yup, that's how much people hate going to the mezzanine (did I mention that the UPS drop box is right next to the escalator, which is right next to our elevator?). Yes, I said. No reason for both of us to have to suffer.
So next time you see me walking around the Hancock Tower, or any other public place for that matter, don't expect me to be nice. In fact, I may try to trip you.
You know, to but the Universe back in balance.