Commission!

I have to share a moment that happened at work today, because I know that it's going to be one of those moments that will make me laugh out loud whenever I think of it, which I love.

So this afternoon I needed to send an email to all the students participating in a study abroad program over Winter Break or during the Spring semester. This involved having to pull all of the students' email addresses from our database...which sounds fairly simple...except that I had never done it before. So I solicited the expertise of my co-worker, Orie, who is the princess of technology in our office. (She also seems to attract the students that either have ridiculously crazy ideas (i.e. wanting to study abroad in Iran for a semester) or those that just can't seem to get it (i.e. not understanding that in order to get accepted into a program, you have to actually apply...it doesn't just happen on it's own), but that's another story).

It seemed like every time she tried to sit down to show me how to pull the email address from our database, a student came in to see me...or her...or there where two students...one to see each of us (none of which had made appointments, by the way). After almost three hours of failed attempts, we were finally able to walk through the process. We were joking about the fact that we couldn't get our work done because of the students, and it would be nice if we got...and then we both stopped. Neither of us could think of the word we were looking for! We knew it started with the letter "c," and that it's how car salesmen and brokers make their money...but we could not, for the life of us, think of the word! (Pretty sad for two college graduates). This frustrated both of us to no end (especially me). She finished showing me how to pull the email addresses, and went back to her office next door.

About a minute later, it came to me. I literally jumped out of my chair and made a mad dash for her office. I swear that we were operating on the same exact brain wave during those few minutes, because I had barely rounded the corner when she ran smack into me and we both screamed "COMMISSION!" The student worker that shares my office just looked at us and said, "Wow. That was entertaining." It was one of those moments that we could not have planned if we tried, and we both burst into laughter. Like many of my stories, you probably had to be there to experience the complete hilariousness of it; but I assure you, it was funny.

I love moments like that...moments that are almost too perfect for words, so all you can do is laugh about them from the deepest parts of you (and be a little creeped out by it). They remind me of just how connected we are as humans. And I can't help but think that God gets a pretty good kick out of these moments too.