Be Kind - The Little Old Lady In The Bookstore

I work in a decent sized, local, indie bookstore. It’s a great job 99% of the time and a lot of our customers are pretty neat people. Any who, middle of the day this little old lady comes up. She’s lovably kooky. She effuses how much she loves the store and how she wishes she could spend more time in it but her husband is waiting in the car ‘OH! I BETTER BUY HIM SOME CHOCOLATE!’ She piles a bunch of art supplies on the counter and then stops and tells me how my bangs are beautiful and remind her of the ocean (‘Wooooosh’ she says, making a wave gesture with her hand.

Ok, I think to myself. Awesomely happy, weird little old ladies are my favorite kind of customer. They’re thrilled about everything and they’re comfortably bananas. I can have a good time with this one. So we chat and it’s nice.

Then this kid, who’s been up my counter a few times to gather his school textbooks, comes up in line behind her (we’re connected to a major university in the city so we have a lot of harried students pass through). She turns around to him and, out of nowhere, demands that he put his textbooks on the counter. He’s confused but she explains that she’s going to buy his textbooks.

He goes sheetrock white. He refuses and adamantly insists that she can’t do that. It’s like, $400 worth of textbooks. She, this tiny old woman, boldly takes them out of his hands, throws them on the counter and turns to me with an intense stare and tells me to put them on her bill. The kid at this point is practically in tears. He’s confused and shocked and grateful. Then she turns to him and says ‘you need chocolate.’ She starts grabbing handfuls of chocolates and putting them in her pile.

He keeps asking her ‘why are you doing this?’ She responds ‘Do you like Harry Potter?’ and throws a copy of the new Cursed Child on the pile too.

Finally she’s done and I ring her up for a crazy amount of money. She pays and asks me to please give the kid a few bags for his stuff. While I’m bagging up her merchandise the kid hugs her. We’re both telling her how amazing she is and what an awesome thing she’s done. She turns to both of us and says probably one of the most profound, unscripted things I’ve ever had someone say:

‘It’s important to be kind. You can’t know all the times that you’ve hurt people in tiny, significant ways. It’s easy to be cruel without meaning to be. There’s nothing you can do about that. But you can choose to be kind. Be kind.’

The kid thanks her again and leaves. I tell her again how awesome she is. She’s staring out the door after him and says to me: ‘My son is a homeless meth addict. I don’t know what I did. I see that boy and I see the man my son could have been if someone had chosen to be kind to him at just the right time.’

I’ve bagged up all her stuff and at this point am super awkward and feel like I should say something but I don’t know what. Then she turns to me and says: ‘I wish I could have bangs like that but my darn hair is just too curly.’ And leaves. And that is the story of the best customer I’ve ever had. Be kind to somebody today.

You never know how your actions may effect others around you, so you might as well be kind to all.

By Christine Turel

Chocolate is a Vegetable

Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. 

Bean = vegetable. 

Sugar is derived from either sugar CANE or sugar BEETS. 

Both are plants, which places them in the vegetable category. 

Thus, chocolate is a vegetable.

To go one step further, chocolate candy bars also contain milk, which is dairy. So candy bars are a health food.

Chocolate-covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car. The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite, and you'll eat less.

If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves. (We're testing this with other snack foods as well.)

If I eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, is that a balanced diet? Don't they actually counteract each other?

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger. Therefore, you need to eat more chocolate.

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Now, isn't that handy?

If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

If not for chocolate, there would be no need for control top pantyhose. An entire garment industry would be devastated. You can't let that happen, can you? 

Chocolate Extremes

Unfortunately, the awesome pictures didn’t show up on my email when I forwarded it and the original email was deleted.  Sorry!!

The Most Expensive Chocolates in the World! Chocolate is one of the oldest foods in the world. It was already known in ancient times, the Aztecs and Mayan people would tend to grind cacao seeds and mix them with different spices, food and drink. Over the years, the chocolate transformed and became one of the world's most favorite treats and snacks. Alongside commercial varieties are also proudly fine and gourmet chocolate. 

From a health perspective, chocolate is considered as an antioxidant that helps lower blood pressure and improve heart function . Maybe that's why some people will pay huge amounts for rare chocolates. How much money? Here is a list of the most expensive chocolates in the world!

Chocolate Truffle Cake Box Chocolate Truffle Cake Box is an EDIBLE box of chocolate. This is actually a cheese cake made from vanilla and bourbon coated in macadamia nuts and decorated with white and dark chocolate. The top of the cake, the decorations and interior chocolates are all edible. The price of a box cake is $180.

Aficionado's Collection chocolates Aficionado's Collection chocolates is a collection of famous cigars made especially for the holidays, from Swiss manufacturer 'The House Of Grauer'.The cigars are actually high quality Swiss chocolate rolled in a cigar leaf that comes in a variety of flavors to choose from, including Italian roasted nuts, milk chocolate with organic pollen from France and cinnamon from Sri Lanka. The cigars are packaged in beautiful boxes that reflect the tradition of cigar smoking and offer an experience of taste and luxury. Prices range from $ 65 for 14 units to $275 dollars for 104 units.

'The chocolate' chocolate box A boutique factory called 'The Chocolate' designed one of the world's most luxurious chocolate truffles in the world. The Chocolate itself comes in a fancy box made from recycled materials and studded with 450 Swarovski crystal stones, inside and out. The price tag of this prestigious is $294 dollars.

Delafee's Chocolate Box The Swiss company Delafee specializes in ideas, gifts and designs covered in chocolate, and so it also sells chocolate boxes. This box contains 8 chocolate fingers coated with 24 carat gold sparkles at a price of $508 dollars a pound. Michel Cluizel's 400 piece chocolate box Michel Cluizel's chocolates are a rich-in-flavor experience. Inside his own edible chocolate box there are 400 pieces of neatly organized chocolates, with special designs and tastes. His box has a price tag of $895.

Cocoa Gourmet royal collection For true chocophiles or just rich enough to be willing to spend a fortune on chocolate, there is the Cocoa Gourmet royal collection, which offers chocolate pieces embedded with diamonds, gold and silver. The chocolates not only provide a sweet tooth delight but are also a luxurious symbol of status. This box, the price of which stands proudly at $1,250, offers only 12 pieces of Swiss Gnash chocolate, studded in previous metals and diamonds. The metals are safe for eating and hold to the international food standard.

Wispa chocolate bar The Wispa chocolate bar is the most expensive chocolate bar in the world. Gold wrapped, it is valued at $1628 dollars.

Noka Vintages Collection The Noka Vintages Collection is a delicious chocolate delicacy obtained from special cocoa beans that grow in exclusive plantations in Venezuela , Côte d'Ivoire , Trinidad and Ecuador . The chocolate is made from 75% pure chocolate with cocoa butter and sugar, without any addition of emulsifier or vanilla. It is sold for the amazing price of $854 dollars a pound.

Fritz Knipschildt's Chocopolagie Fritz Knipschildt's Chocopolagie is one of the most expensive and delicious delicacies in the world. The recipe made of 70% dark chocolate was invented by chef Fritz Knipschildt in 1999 in France , and he quickly settled in the top of the luxury chocolate list. The Bitter truffle is sold with a price tag of $250 per unit or $2600 dollars for 450 grams (about a pound).

Lebanese Patchi chocolates If you want to taste a different kind of luxury, these chocolates for you. The Lebanese Patchi brand is embedded with Swarovski stones and launched by the Harrods in a box of 49 pieces of chocolate wrapped in silk from India and placed on suede leather pads decorated with gold and platinum. The price of this box? Well, it comes to $10,000. You heard right.

Most expensive chocolate: 'Le Chocolate' chocolate box But the World's most expensive chocolate is the fulfillment of every woman's dream - chocolate and diamonds. The 'Le Chocolate' chocolate box, designed by Simmons Jewelry, includes a variety of chocolates packaged in a box with necklaces, earrings, rings and bracelets set in yellow and blue diamonds, sapphires and emeralds. It is currently the world's most expensive set and it's price is 'only' $1.5 million

Chocolate Train

It would be hard to work for them........Parts of the train would be missing.

A train made entirely of chocolate has set a new Guinness World Record as the longest chocolate structure in the world.

The sculpture, on display at the busy Brussels South station, is 112-feet (34.05 meters) long and weighs over 2,755 pounds (1250 kilos).

Maltese chocolate artist Andrew Farrugia spent over 700 hours constructing the masterpiece.

He said he came up with the idea of the train last year after visiting the Belgian Chocolate Festival in Bruge: "I had this idea for a while, and I said what do you think if we do this realisation of a long chocolate train, you know, because a train you can make it as long as you like.

"Actually it was going to be much smaller than it was, but I kept on adding another wagon, and another wagon, and it's the size it is today."

Farrugia had previously built a smaller train of 12 feet for an event in Malta, which he said gave him insight about how to build this much larger version.

There are two parts to the train. The first seven wagons are modelled after the new Belgian trains, and the rest of the train is modelled after the old train wagons, including a wagon with a bar and restaurant on board.

Three days before the event, Farrugia transported the chocolate train by truck in 25 wooden boxes from Malta to Belgium .

Farrugia said the train incurred considerable damage during the drive and several of the train's walls had completely collapsed. Luckily, with hard work and little sleep, the chocolate artist was able to fix all the damages before presenting the train to the public on Monday.

After measuring the length of the train and confirming no material other than chocolate was used, officials from the Guinness Book of World Records added a new category to the collection of world records and declared the train to be the longest chocolate structure in the world.

CHOCOLATE!!!

These are all from a facebook page "Chocolate".  

♥Chocolate♥

CHOCOLATE!

There are only three things in life that matter - good friends,

good chocolate and, oh dear, what was that other one?

Never eat more chocolate than you can lift!

Q: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car?

The 12-step chocoholics program:

NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE!

Today is Earth Day,

protect our home, remember It's the only planet with chocolate!

<=== I'm not overweight, just chocolate enriched.

Exercise is a dirty word . . . . Every time I hear it,

I wash my mouth out with chocolate. :)

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today.

That way, at least you'll get one thing done :)

When is your favorite time to eat chocolate?

a. After a good meal.
b. Between meals.
c. As meals.
d. All of the above.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yum yum!! want some?

I never thought that one broken heart would look so yummy!

CHOCOLATE!

Did you know . . .

In some areas, such as Yucatán Mexico,

cacao beans were still used in place of small coins as late as the 1840s.

When no one understands you, chocolate is there!

When do you get your strongest chocolate cravings?

a: After dinner for dessert
b: Mid-afternoon, as a pick-me-up
c: Before breakfast
d: All day long
e: At night, in bed

Eating chocolate . . . .

a: Stimulates my mind
b: Calms me down, soothes me
c: Makes me happy
d: Energizes me
e: All of the above . . . .

Give me chocolate and nobody gets hurt!!!!!!!

I love U chocolate

May 2009