I do enjoy me some free stuff..

So.. it seems like there are many times where I am caught in... a dilemma.. of sorts. A situation where I'm thinking 'Now, how is an adult supposed to respond to this?'. Most of these thoughts seem to arise from an instance where someone is offering to pay for something for me.. or give me something for free.. or something to that extent. I hear people, I've seen it on TV and people have done it to me when I have offered.. the whole refusing to let me pay for something.. are you catching my drift? One thing about me, though, is I don't offer unless I really intend to do whatever it is I offer. I think this is the way everyone should be - maybe they are, maybe they aren't- I don't know.

So that's the problem. It seems like the 'polite' thing to do is to say 'no, no, no' and 'don't do that' when people offer and some people outright refuse for someone to pay for them.

Me, though? If you want to pay, by all means pay!

I think I'm missing something in me. I mean, I do the whole polite thing where I say 'no don't worry about it' or 'really you don't need to do that' or even 'no, no, no', but if you are offering I kind of expect you to win in the end... I will take free things and things getting paid for! Is that bad?!

I definitely just had a situation.. I shall explain.. and it ends with me getting free car work done whenever I need..

I went to get an oil change to the same place I've been a few times before. This time there was a new guy there and he informed he just bought the place about a month ago. So, whatever, I just want my oil changed. I did like the dudes before, they were quite helpful and had done a thing or two for free for me.
Anyway, the guys goes and works on the car, then tells me my battery is starting to corrode, so he says he's going to call around and see how much it would cost for a new battery. He said I should start looking into it, so he's calling around and another guy is cleaning, vacuuming out my car. He calls a few places, lets me know how much it will cost about. He tells me if I pick one up, he'd install it for free.. yadda yadda.

He then says he's going to get my car. So I walk out and I see the guy that had been cleaning it getting picked up by his girlfriend or something. So I wait for like 10 minutes and the owner comes out and says 'well, so I think (whatshisname- we'll call him Joe) left with your keys in his pocket'. So he tells me he's going to call him. I figure it's no big deal - he'll just call his cell phone and the guy will turn around. Well, I can tell he's looking around for his number for a little while, then finally het gets on the phone with this guy's son. I'm figuring Joe doesn't have a cell phone, so great, this is going to take even longer. It turns out, I find out later, that Joe is deaf! So, obviously he doesn't have a cell phone. So the owner has to call his son, who has to call him and communicate in some way. Apparently, Joe didn't go directly home, either. Nobody can get a hold of him.

Finally, the owner, Jeff, decides I can take his car home and then when Joe arrives with my keys he will deliver my car. So, okay, I just wanted to get home. I took his car, drove home, took the dog on a walk.. and kept my cell phone close by. Luckily, my roommate was home or I would have had no way to get into my house, since my house key was with my car keys! I didn't even think about that when I drove home.

I keep thinking it can't take that long for my keys to get back to the car place. Owner Jeff said Joe only lives like 10 minutes away. I make dinner, watch TV and am starting to get a bit nervous about this ordeal. Am I involved in some kind of scheme here? The guy hadn't been in business long.. I just dont' know what's going on..

Finally, Owner Jeff calls to tell me he still hasn't gotten them, but he's staying at the shop until he gets them. I was glad to hear from him again.Eventually, after my dear friend reminds me, I decide to take my spare key so I can atleast have my car and then I can get my keys and car remote later. I called Owner Jeff to inform him of the plan.

Luckily, on the way back to the place my keys get returned and when I get there the whole mess is finally over! Hallelujah! Owner Jeff feels so so so bad and tells me everything will be free for me for now on. What? I thought that might be a little extreme... I mean he gave me the oil change free and maybe he could give me the next one, but he was serious, all work will be free. If I need parts, I will pay for parts, but not labor... ever.

I just don't know if I wasn't mad enough about the whole situation and deserve free things forever or if he is being overly nice. I guess if I had things to do last night I would have been quite a bit more perturbed, but I didn't have anything too big going on. I also guess if I had no way of getting into my house, I would have been a little more angry as well. Hmmm..

Welp, anyway, as thoughts of 'how should an adult respond to this?' went through my head, I just told him that was really nice of him and he didn't really need to do that... but as I mentioned at the beginning, I am not going to turn down free things!