One Small Step for Office Depot Employees...One Giant Leap for My Life in the Dating World

Sooooo I had quite the encounter at Office Depot today. First of all, Office Depot is the Disneyworld of office supplies. I can't even handle how fabulous that place is...and SO many colors. If Kristen Blasik (rainbow queen of 2011) was an aisle of office supplies, I found her! (see picture below :-) )

SO context clues: Hart and I are standing in the aisle of legal notepads trying to make a decision about which kind we want for the office and for our own grad school usage. I don't make decisions well, so we were standing there for about 10 minutes when I decided to abort that mission and go find some colored Pilot G-2 pens (you should try them. unparalleled gel-ink excellence. you'll thank me). A fellow who worked there came up and asked if we needed help finding something, so I told him about the G-2 mission and he took me to them. Along the way he asked what we were doing and where we worked and other chit-chatty things; when he left my presence, he shook my hand (even though we didn't formally introduce ourselves...). Then Hart joined me and we were debating over the kind of pen that we wanted because the multi-colored pack wasn't there when in walked our fellow again (we later found out that his name is Jakob via his name tag) and asked if he could help us with anything. We told him about our elusive pen dilemma, and he offered to order them for us from the distribution center and even offered to comp the shipping charge. Generous. We told him we'd think about it. Then he shook my hand again...still no formal introduction nor handshake for Hart. Then after another brief stretch of time, we walked over to the highlighters and out popped trusty Jakob again to wonder with us over all of the pretty color options. Upon our parting, insert handshake #3. He did ask my name this time, though!

After we made some office supply decisions, we settled on ordering those pens and set out to find Jakob. When we did, we began following him over to the computer area, and mid-journey Hart got distracted by some nifty budget spirals and abandoned ship. Thus, I found myself alone with Jakob at the pen-ordering station. We proceeded to talk about the pens and how excited I was, and then he asked what non-profit I worked for. I told him briefly about TOBET, and he asked me if it was a "Christian thing". I confirmed his suspicion. He then proceeded to tell me about how he was "starting to get back into that kind of thing" which, I found out upon further inquiry, that he meant attending church. Once I put my number into the order form, a conversation erupted that went like this:

Jakob: Oh, what part of Houston are you from?
Me: Cypress...northwest suburb of Houston.
Jakob: me too! I went to Cypress Creek.
Me: (taken aback) no way! When did you graduate?
Jakob: oh, way back in 2007.
Me: (utter shock) you graduated from Cy Creek in 2007?! so.did.I. whoa.
Jakob: Oh! I played football. Do you know (listed a bunch of people that I do, in fact, know).
Me: uh, I was a Silvie! (our drill team who interacted quite a bit with the football team)
Jakob: whoaaaa (or some sound of awe...)

freaking.weird.

So then I asked where I could find some binder rings (to put my epic 10 pack of colorful highlighters!!! such a nerd :-) see picture below!), and Hart didn't follow...so when we were about to have our final parting moment, he asked if he could give me his number because he "would really like to go to church with me sometime. He's looking for a friend to help him get back into it, so call him when I'm going"...so I typed it in my phone. Why I did that, I will never know. In my defense, I really thought he just wanted a church buddy! Color me ignorant on the current state of boy-meets-girl. Before I typed in his number, though, I did clarify that I'm Catholic to ensure that he was okay with going to a Catholic Mass. But don't fret, my lovely blog readers! Jakob's quick response "oh it's okay. I love Jesus! And I have a rosary tattoo"...

Might I also mention that when Hart and I were debriefing about this situation in the car, we both agreed that it would be okay for me to text him, reveal my identity via phone number, and invite him to church because far be it from me to deny someone Jesus. It was not until later that evening at Chick-Fil-A with some guy friends that our dear Jakob's true motivations were revealed to me. Apparently, it's called "the reverse pick-up". [I haven't super decided how I feel about it as it pertains to the man being the initiator, but I'll leave my opinions on the situation for a future post.] In case you are also in the dark about this whole new type of pick-up, the guy may just give her his number so that she will call him and then he will know that she's really interested...even if it means that he has to crash a Mass to get to her. SO, ladies, moral of this story...odds are he can find Jesus without a date. Don't text him...unless you really are interested... :-)

So that's the story on my first new encounter with the world of post-college dating. I'm a bit shell-shocked to be honest! How could I have been so wrong in my interpretation? Oooops! If anything, my eyes were opened to a new approach to being picked up by random guys, so I'll put that in my back pocket for when just such a moment arrives in which that information would be relevant.

And, after all, nothing says self-confidence booster like being hit on by a total stranger...

:-)

and now for the promised pictures...

If Kristen were an aisle of office supplies...

shut.up.

(...I didn't say anything...)

these are SO GREAT!

There's even a CORAL one (new favorite color!)

another highlight of my day was the incident where we found a bunch of handwriting educational supplies in the office and I confiscated them for my ongoing conversion to the world of the leftys

Playing Catch-Up!

I haven't yet gotten into the habit of posting on my blog, so I am a few days behind! I'm looking forward to getting on a schedule so that I can work blogging into it. But until then, I'll just post a few days worth of blog posts at one time! Here is the one that I wrote for January 2:

January 2: Well, my internet is down at my house, so I am typing this in a word document to transfer to my blog when I return to the big D tomorrow. Christmas break is winding down and I am about to head back to work. The time moved so quickly. Sheesh!

Tonight I watched this epic movie called Spy Game with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. It’s one of my mom’s favorites, and I’ve been making it a mission of mine to watch all of those classics that she references all the time. This break I covered Top Gun, The Shawshank Redemption (of course), Behind Enemy Lines, and this one. When I asked her what it’s about, she simply said “loyalty”. Boy, was she right! It was all about sacrificing things that are precious to you for the betterment of someone that you care about. I’m all about that kind of stuff because an exercise of loyalty typically requires a display of passionate love (not sexual love…just a movement zealousness in the heart of the person) and my heart beats faster at the sight of those things! Passion is one of my favorite things about humanity, and loyalty is something that is super important to me. So all in all…I’m a big fan of the movie! It was a wonderful, chill last day of break with my family topped off with another awesome movie. God is so good J

Be advised that I might post again tonight with the other three days worth of adventures that I have had so far in 2012! 

Project 2012

It's officially January 2nd now, but this post totally counts for January 1! New year, new beginnings. At the turn of the year 2011, my slogan was "new year, new elizabeth" (hehehe cheesy I know!) and I made a very concerted effort to put the incredibly difficult year of 2010 behind me and move forward with a new hope for the promising year to come. I have super issues with staying in the present moment, and 2011 held a promise of redeeming that negative quality about myself. I even rearranged my room at the Castle so that things looked different when I woke up each morning. It worked, and that catchy slogan (and new bed-placement!!) pulled me into the new year with a vigor that I can only attribute to grace and a solid determination that the next day (and year!) would be sunnier than the last. Well after a year of excruciating transitions and enduring pain that reached a magnitude that I could not have even fathomed that my little body and weak heart could withstand, here I am again on the brink of yet another year. In a riveting conversation that I had a with a wise friend today, I encountered an outlook on life that I find both fascinating and appealing: I asked him what his new years resolutions were, and he said that he didn't have any because he was always trying to better himself by continually resolving to change and improve. WOW. I was quite taken aback and stood a bit in awe of that outlook on life. I like it. But I am not there quite yet, so I have developed a list-of-sorts of year-long projects that I hope to perfect by the end of 2012 in the hopes of increasing my capacity to love. And standing here about to embark on this journey, I find myself wanting to have a slogan to pull me through. I've spent all day trying to be clever, but one thing that I have learned about myself is that as a general rule I make things far more complicated than they need to be. SO I settled on the simple but fabulous: "Project 2012". concise. elegant. all-encompassing. and leaving room for things that come up that I want to add to the list (because we all know that I can't ever make a decision!). PLUS 24 hours into this year I'm already VERY in love with the alliteration that the year TWEnty-TWElve offers us; thus, I intend to say it as many times as possible (or until I annoy someone and have to stop...I have a bad habit of repeating things that I think are great until I numb everyone else who is listening and no one can recognize its greatness anymore...bummer). I'm actually pretty excited about it, and I have taken my first consecutive hope-full breaths of air in five months. Finally.

SO Project 2012 it is! I have quite a few resolutions, some new interests, and even a new hobby that I will talk in detail about in later posts. I am nothing if not ambitious, even to my detriment sometimes, but I think that the refined list of my own R&C promises for 2012 holds the bar just high enough that it'll stretch me but not too high that it's unattainable. Just how I like it!!

One thing that is clear to me from the past couple of years is that I have quite the selective memory (usually confined to emotionally-riviting events that lodge in my amygdala and won't let go!), and my short-term abilities to remember things aren't always the most reliable. I've never been one for using a diary...I prefer a prayer-journal approach to recording my thoughts; however, this puts me at a slight disadvantage in the remember-what-I-did-on-such-and-such-a-day category. SO I want to use some of this blog space to record what I have done in my days in order to bring to light the presence of God in my daily life in ways that I might have otherwise missed Him! I have a dear friend who will write in her planner at the end of every day so that she can look back and remember what happened. Well played, my lady...I think I will follow suit! :-)

January 1, 2012: My fabulous, fabulous friends and I wobbled in the new year! Yes, that's right...I said wobbled. By that I mean, we turned on the Wobble song at precisely midnight and danced through the whole thing! What a great start to a new year!!!! even if Jason did refuse to participate in the zombie impersonations like the rest of us and simply stood there with stiff arms and judgement eyes. hehe :-) then we kept playing this suuuuper funny game called Loaded Questions which basically turned into a bunch of inside jokes that kept our champagne-assisted giggles to a maximum! In the morning we went to Mass together to celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God...what a GREAT liturgical start to the new calendar year. Well played, Magisterium. Well played. I also had a super legit prayer moment with St. Joseph, patron of my vocation today. The theme (that I will develop later in this post) of hope was born in that moment of prayer: assurances of things that happened in the past with a person very dear to my heart and promise of a future full of joy - St. Joseph never fails to warm my heart with His gentle whispers. :-) Then we ate Carol Hart's fabulous roast complete with those icky little black eyed peas for good luck. I must say that I really dislike those and only eat them on New Years. I have a sneaking suspicion that the person who decided that black eyed peas and sauerkraut promise luck and prosperity in the new year really just wanted to play a survival of the fittest game: whomever can withstand the most naaaasty bites of those food wins the luck by default! Regardless, the blackmail worked, and I ate three heaping spoonfuls of black eyed peas just to be on the safe side. Later in the afternoon, my dad and I went to see War Horse which was incredibly inspiring. Gosh, I LOVE those "based on a true story" movies!!! I get goosebumps-of-anticipation during the opening credits just at the thought of how epic the story will be! And it did not disappoint. A super creative culinary creation on my part compensated for the yucky food that I ate earlier in the day (this falls into the Project 2012 category, so details will follow!), and Shawshank Redemption with my parents brought up the rear of my day! Color me inspired by day 1 of 2012. God is so good!

I have a couple of closing statements about the grace of HOPE that was rained down on me today:

Yesterday after the Aggie game, we went to go see that New Year's Eve movie since it was appropriately New Years Eve. I was a bit apprehensive about it (since the Valentine's Day edition was a bit on the skandy side), but the lovely Karen Alleman gave it raving reviews so there I found myself in the movie theater staring expectantly at the screen hoping for a sex-free hour and a half. I got my wish!!! And what's more, the movie made an excellent point. All around the world, people gather together to celebrate the start of a new beginning because, no matter what the previous year gave you, there is a resilience about the human heart that always wants to hope for a better tomorrow (this is the eliza's-theological-interpretation of the movie's message, of course!). The expectation of long-awaited joys, fulfilled promises, dreams coming true, happily ever afters, and chances to love stirs something in us that is so strong that we can't help but get swept up in the anticipation of it all. The tick of the clock at midnight lights a fire in our hearts, and hope is born in its flames. 

This evening I watched a movie with my parents that they always talk about but that I've never seen. It's called The Shawshank Redemption. Have you ever seen it? I must say that I think it's one of those movies that changes you...or at least it had that effect on me. And what was the theme of that movie, you ask???
"Fear can hold you prisoner; hope can set you free" 
mmmhmmm :-) The message of the movie is essentially to never lose hope because as long as you have hope, you have a promise of a better tomorrow and that is sometimes all a person needs to make it through the rest of today. Project 2012 is about freedom, surrender, and utter abandon to the will of God...and hope is the torch that will light the way.