Thursday, August 9, 2007

23 DAYS TO GO!

This is my 100th post...wow.

I have been asked to tell the story of how Fiance and I met. Just to be clear before I begin, this story is in no way riveting.

I graduated from college in 2005 and went to work for an Outdoor Drama. After three grueling months of "special" trees, gay men singing to socks on their thumbs, theme parties, amusement parks, days on the lake, and more bottles of booze than you could count, I moved back home and back in with my parents.

I had a job interview lined up for the Dance Program, here at the University where I now work. So I basically went in, aced the interview and then waited around for the offer phone call. I never got that phone call. I got the "congratulations, you're the runner up" phone call. Great. (For the record that was the only job I have ever applied for and not gotten.)

So I still had some money left over from the Outdoor Drama, so I basically bummed around for the next month. I did not care about anything. I laid in my bed and watched bad TV all day. It was so blissful.

I was completely ignoring the 'subtle' hints my parents were sending my way. Until one day when 'subtle' hints turned into bursting into my room at 9am and demanding that I get up and find a job. So I did.

Literally, I went out and got a job within the hour. I decided that waitressing was my ticket! I figured everyone in the theatre waits tables at some point in their career, I guess it's my turn. So I got a job as a waitress at a Mexican restaurant. (Just a word to the wise, if you can't speak Spanish, don't work at a Mexican restaurant in the South.) I didn't know what half of the things on the menu were and I'm pretty sure I agreed to some things that are shady. But can you blame me? Whenever I don't understand something/someone, I smile and nod. Lord only knows what I agreed to working there.

Within my first shift I managed to spill an entire soda on a customer, burn myself, and mess up orders but still charge people the full price. Obviously I am not cut out to be a waitress.

So I began looking for other employment. Lo and behold, there was a Customer Service site that had a "We're Hiring" banner out. My lucky day! Long story short, I got the Customer Service job and quit my waitressing job.

I was stoked. My shift was 12:30pm to 11pm W/TH/F/S. I got a 3 day weekend! I was working what is commonly referred to as a 4 x 10. At first, it was awesome. Sleep till 11 everyday, stay out late, that kind of thing.

Then I realized that I was lonely. My schedule was great for someone who has a boyfriend or friends to hang out with. I didn't have any of that. I had just moved back from college. While I was in college my parents moved away from our home town. My sister lived 45 minutes away. I was lonely.

So I began to make friends with some of my co workers. We started hanging out after work. The only problem with that was that most of them lived even further away than my sister did. So making friends with my co workers really only meant that I was hanging out with them once every two weeks or so.

So again I'm lonely. I'd go out for a cigarette break and see all of the clusters of people and get sad. I didn't have that. I didn't have anybody.

One lunchtime I was eating in the break room and watching TV. (Now at this particular Customer Service establishment they showed one of two things on the TV...CNN or a PowerPoint presentation with a grand total of 3 slides in it.) On this day, I was eating chicken wings and watching CNN all by my lonesome in the break room. Enthralled, I heard the break room door open and someone walk in. Without turning around I said "don't you just love it how they only show CNN on these TVs?" the response was, "it's better than the stupid PowerPoint presentations."

I laughed and turned around. And there he was...fiance (though of course he wasn't fiance at that point, that would have been awkward.) Now fiance has the prettiest blue eyes you'll ever see and that's the very first thing that struck me. In fact I'm pretty sure that we didn't find out each other's names for the next week...probably b/c I liked staring at his eyes so much that I didn't bother with trivial things like names.

Fiance came to sit down and eat lunch with me. There we were, two unsuspecting kids meeting over a lunch of hot wings and Batman spagettios.

Who knew at that point that we would now be 23 days away from our wedding? It's weird to think that if I had gotten the job in the Dance department I would never have met the love of my life.

I actually ran into the administrator for the Dance department a couple of weeks ago and I thanked her for not giving me that job.

I am a firm believer is "everything happens for a reason"

*kisses*

5 comments:

A Margarita said...

Awwwww! The cuteness. That was too sweet. Yes, things certainly do happen that are not what we would have ideally preferred, and it all worked out for the best.

Congrats on the 100th post!

Balou said...

Get out of my head! Before I got to the end I was thinking "everything happens for a reason." Aww, sweet pea -- that is THE cutest story! (I love "meet cute" stories.)

P.S. Happy Post-aversary!

Wide Lawns said...

That is a very sweet story and don't be self conscious about your picture. It's adorable and you're going to be a beautiful, beautiful bride.

Paulette Foley said...

*Sniff* I LOVE a good "how I met my..." story. When one door closes, another opens...and you never know what (or who in this case) may be waiting behind that door.

BekABoo said...

I have actually written, also, wondering about...what if I had always gotten what I thought I wanted. I wouldn't have met my husband either! God knows what he's doing!