Work and people interactions

My work is so people-oriented. It's quite amazing. Besides the fact that I'm calling person after person, I'm also sitting surrounded by around 10 other people, doing the same thing. And we always have anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or so, in between calls, when we interact with each other. We have so many half-finished conversations. Stories and jokes we're telling each other.

Mostly it's fun. The people are... interesting. I feel like I'm also getting the opportunity - because of the people-aspect of this job - to learn tons about myself.

Most of the guys are anywhere from non-religious and don't know anything to non-religious, maybe know something, maybe not, but definitely hate it, mock it, whatever. And truth is, to a large extent, I totally understand them.

One guy tonight specifically said, "I hate religion." Why wouldn't he? Religion is this weird thing that when you're in it, you're forced to take on a whole bunch of weird, annoying and/or difficult things.

So you can start arguing about how deep, meaningful and fulfilling a religious life-style is but guess what. To this guy, from the outside, it sure doesn't look like it. It looks claustrophobic. It looks old-fashioned. It looks pretty damn useless.

Funny, because I come from within it and yet I can totally relate. My take on it is different than his. I think that you need to figure out how to do things in a meaningful way. You have to do things in the right way for you. The right time, place, etc. Then it can be great. But obviously the idea of suddenly one day taking on a mitzva, is horrible. Because when the person considers this idea, they aren't in a place that is right for taking on that mitzva so the mere idea is gonna totally turn him off.

It's a great and important defense mechanism.

Besides that, today is one of the guy's birthdays. I really like him. He's cute. I even had a dream about going out with him, like a girl friend, boy friend thing. He's turning 21. I'm turning 27 next week. : ) That would be cool! Anyway, he's sort of quiet. He's sweet. At least he seems to be (I've misjudged that before so who knows). When during our training I mentioned the serious importance of being honest, he gave me an immediate thumbs-up. And when one night neither of us sold, I told him the next day that I felt a kinship towards him for that and then I told him I was surprised how much I cared that I didn't sell. He told me he didn't care at all because, so what. I told him I really respected him for that.

Anyway, in short, he's cute. I see that he really gets to me.

So a few days ago I decided to get him a b-day card. I bought a sort of nerdy but cute one. And I wrote a little note inside. Since we work 10-5 at night, I decided that I'd put it on his desk right when his b-day began, at midnight. I did that, when he was away from his desk. But then the whole night he didn't notice it because it was under some paper. But then when we finished up for the night, he found it. And he was like, "QE, you got me a card! That's so nice!" and I was like, "Oh, I'm so embarrassed," or something nerdy like that. I was so embarrassed! But I wished him a happy birthday. He really appreciated it. He thought it was so nice and it looked like it made him really happy.

So freakin' cool to really touch someone and make them happy.

QE