I have a new friend.

His name is Ruben and he works in the paint department at Lowe's.

I recently purchased patio furniture on Craig's List and am currently giving the items a face lift.

Now I have been to Lowe's about 3 times a month for the past year and somehow I only met Ruben yesterday. Maybe he's new. I didn't want to inquire.

He was very helpful in answering some questions for me, and looking past my tunnel vision when I couldn't spot the primer that was right in front of me. When it came time for me to depart, he said "I just know you are going to have a good day-you have such a good attitude!" I thought that was really sweet.

I returned today because I bought every last bottle of Rustoleum's Metallic Copper spray paint and was hoping it had been restocked. Low and behold Ruben was working again and even remembered me. He was very complimentary and told me how nice I looked (which I did, I had new dress on for our biggest business event of the year. Probably looked a little out of place at Lowe's.) And it was in stark contrast to my usual home improvement weekend look of stained jeans, t-shirt and no makeup. I had also left my name tag on so he was eager to learn what I did at my job and to have a name with the sometimes bare/sometimes made up face.

Ruben was so happy to see me he made me promise to come find him and say hello next time I was in. Which will likely be Friday when my spray paint is expected to arrive, or I can jet over to a neighboring city where he looked up that two cans were in stock. But no Ruben at that store!

Just like my time with the best pharmacist ever, Ruben was the epitome of customer service. And I have to guess he liked me so much because I was not a crazy, demanding customer. It was refreshing to see someone so helpful and genuinely nice who cared about my project and was interested to know how day 1 went.

Selfishly, I filled out two surveys for Lowe's to win $5k (which I also do at Target-someday I'll win something) and was hoping for a fill in the blank comments section where I could call Ruben out and hopefully earn him employee of the month, but sadly, no such deal. I'll send the manager a nice note instead.