The Mystery of the Missing Card

Funny story: Friday morning I was in downtown Boston to interview with Color Kinetics for a summer internship. They're a really awesome looking company who have merged the geekiness of technical engineering with the coolness of aesthetic lighting. I think it'd be a great place to spend the summer, even though they aren't related to biomedical engineering at all. But the story happens before the interview.

The weather was a bit rough on Friday. We had Nor'easter blow through, so it was very cold and windy Friday morning. By mid afternoon we had several inches of snow, and it didn't stop snowing all night. Well, I was hurrying to the warmth of my interview when I passed a begger. I was planing on walking past until I remembered the $5 gift cards I keep with me to give out. I went back, pulled a card out of my wallet, handed it to him and told him what it was, then I continued on my way.

I made it to my interview (three interviews actually) with a bit of time to spare and the interview went well--if only I remembered how C++ allowcates memory inside object constructors I might have done a bit better. Truth be told, I didn't even know I was interview for a software position. I thought I was there for an electrical engineering one. Oh well.

So I leave the building along with another Tufts student who had been interviewing at the same time. She had driven and offered to give me a ride back to campus. On our way to the garage I decided I should get out the other $5 card in case I came across someone else in need. I open up my wallet to find both cards still in there. There really should have only been one left. I had given the guy earlier that day some card from my wallet, but I have no idea which one it was (aside from knowing it's a nonessential card since that's all I keep in that part of my wallet).

So I feel sorry for this guy I gave the random card to. I can just imagine him going to McDonald's and giving them this card to pay. "I'm sorry sir, but this is your AAA card." "But the guy told me it had $5 on it." "If it does it's not for here." It's sad really, but funny.