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
No comments:
Post a Comment