Hare Krishna: The Festival of Colors

So, recently Je-Vé, our friends, and I went to the Holi Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. It was really fun. BYU had a sponsored music/dance performance that was really good and we got to eat some yummy Indian food. Normally I'm not a big fan of vegetarian, but the Indians can pull that off well. There was this stuff that at first I thought was mash potatoes with kind of yellowish potato chunks that turned out to be sweet with pineapple chunks (I know, how did I think they were potato chunks? I don't know, but I wasn't the only one who thought it). It was really, really good. I have no clue what it is called.

Anyway, as part of the festival we got to throw (or smear) this chalk stuff on each other and anyone in the huge crowd that was with there. That was also really fun. The only bad part was getting it in your mouth. It even washed out of my clothes pretty well. Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy.

Me looking so tough and awesome. Don't mess with this rainbow! (No, I don't know what is wrong with me, so don't ask.)

The beautiful, marvelous, colorful Je-Vé Edmonds. Sorry, fellas, she's taken.

And the group we came in with. From left to right: Tammy (Matt's sister), Miriam (good friend), Matt (good friend/Miriam's hubby), Myself (Je-Vé's fiancee), Je-Vé (just plain awesome), Rachel (half hidden by Je-Vé's hand/good friend), Brad (good friend/old roommate of 2+years). In the front is Abby (Miriam's sister).

By the way, Je-Vé put the pictures up and I, Pratt, added the words. It's counting Je-Vé as the poster, but don't let that fool you.

The Meeting: According to Je-Ve'

In reading Pratt's version of the day we met, I actually learned a few things that I did not know before. Maybe he will learn a few things from my side of the story.

I actually felt somewhat intimidated by my first day at work. The Close To My Heart corporate office is a huge building, and I had never actually worked customer service over the phone or by email before. Now that I know how picky they can be about how much experience the people they hire have, I'm surprised they hired me in the first place. Maybe they were desperate, because there really were a lot of emails to be worked on.

I was fairly early to work that day, and we were instructed to sit in that first room in the chairs around the beautiful fountain in the lobby area. There were between four and six of us (I can't remember exactly, but I know I'm the only one from that group who still works there), and none of us really spoke to each other until Sonja came in and took us into the conference room for our first day of training.

Anna was her name, by the way, Pratt. Brooke thought she was stuck up? I suppose someone could get that impression without knowing her very well. She was actually very friendly to everyone, but she seemed to have something to say about everything.

Anna was the other writer that was being trained with me. The remaining trainees were going to be call agents. The information we needed to know was basically the same, so they trained us together.

After going over a few basic rules, Sonja decided to take us on a short tour of the building. The first place was the break room, and then to the Consultant Services room, where we were introduced to several of the call agents and the two writers, who seemed to be in a corner all their own.

Miriam was nice and friendly, but Pratt was definitely strange. I faintly recall the "email ninja" comment, which I think I all but completely ignored at the time. It was certainly random, and not something I felt should be replied to.

One of the call agents was in that same area, and he had a picture of one of the Star Wars ships as the desktop on his computer. Star wars; that was something I could relate to and comment on. So I did, and that was pretty much the extent of our first meeting.

Once I finished training, they kind of put me on the opposite side of the corner as the other writers, so the best way to communicate was by email. I had to send my first several emails through Pratt, because I did not have the permissions to send them myself at the time. I would often ask questions, and he would answer them, as well as add comments of his own. He was definitely a teaser, but I caught on quickly and teased him right back.

Those of you who know us well will know that to this day we still tease each other a lot, though it is probably quite a bit nicer now than it was then.

The pictures Pratt mentioned are on my mom's laptop. I hope to have them up later tonight.

The Meeting: According to Pratt

When we tell people that we are getting married, one of the first things they ask us is how we met. This is my story of how things happened that day.

We met at work. I wrote emails for the customer service department at Close To My Heart, a scrapbooking company in Pleasant Grove, UT. Most of the other writers had quit awhile ago, and I'd been working alone on emails for awhile. My good friend Miriam had been working as a writer for just a few weeks, but things were still pretty stressed for us. There were a lot of emails to write.

Well, we heard the information that we were not only going to get one new email writer, but two. This was very good news, although at the time I had no clue how good of news. So the day came for the new employees (those who would work the phones as well as the two new writers) to start their training. While working that day I got an email from Brooke, who worked up front and liked to talk via email with me during the day, that said, "Well one of the new writers is really cute, but I don't like her. She seems kind of stuck up." This was more than a little discouraging to me, since I like having agreeable coworkers, so I emailed her back asking about the other one. "She seems kinda cute. She has dark hair, and seems pretty nice. She does have a really cool hat." If anyone does not know, the second one was Je-Vé (those of you who know her well would have figured that out from the hat comment :D).

So that was my first real knowledge of Je-Vé, although it was only later that day that I got to met her. She, as well as the other trainees, were being introduced to everyone who worked in customer service. We didn't take a break from our work, so the trainer, Sonja, was bringing them by to our psuedo-cubicles and introducing whoever was in a particular section to the trainees. When she got around to us, I was able to make my own judgements about the new writers instead of depending on Brooke's. One thing I can say is that Brooke is clearly a woman, because Je-Vé was certainly cuter than the other writer (whose name I can no longer remember; maybe Je-Vé remembers). 

Anyway, we all were introduced and I had to add that not only was I Pratt and the senior writer, but that I was also an email ninja (I had done a lot of emails that day and was feeling particularly proud of the fact). I have since confirmed that she thought I was pretty odd for giving this comment and for being me in general. That opinion has not really changed, but she likes my silliness and oddities (for the most part) so it has all worked out. She in turn commented on my neighbor's Star Wars background on his computer. I believe she did this in an attempt to locate and befriend the Close To My Heart nerd community because they would be the type of people that she would get along with best. Little did she know that we, the nerd community of Close To My Heart, were not actually big friends with my neighbor nor did she know that the email ninja would have been a better contact for her purposes.

And that, my friends, is how we met. Perhaps Je-Vé will tell her part of the story soon. Also, we may see fit to tell more of our story as time goes on. Either way, we will be posting pictures of us for your amusement.