Hey Guys!

Hard to believe it’s been so long since I’ve written in here. I’m sure I’ve had things to say, just been really tired lately.

As some of you know I’ve been in Atlanta for training this week. It’s always amazing to me how you can get to know some people so well you miss them when you leave, in just a short period of time. Our class was fantastic. Well, the people were fantastic. It’s nice to know there are so many wonderful people doing my exact job all over the United States! While it’s hard to pick just one great thing this trip, I’ve got to believe the nicest thing I’ve seen in a long time was the fact the CRR from our Hawaii office brought us all a different Hawaiian snack for each day we were there!

One thing that’s been on my mind since early this morning is the dynamics between men and women. I could probably spend blogs and blogs on the things I don’t understand about each gender (not only the “other” one ;) ), as well as the confusing dynamic between them. The reason this particular thought sprung to mind began on Monday night. Well, maybe Sunday night. I will get to the bulk of my philosophical style towards the end, but the story has to be told first, so here it goes….

Upon arriving in Atlanta airport, I met the CRR from the Silver Spring office (whom I’d known from working an install in her district earlier this year.) and a service supervisor from our Baltimore office she knew. The supervisor and I spent the airport-to-hotel trip chatting about work and he seemed very friendly. Monday night, our class ate together in the hotel dining room (paid for via Lanier) and ran into the service tech and his roommate. I wandered over and talked to them for a bit, inviting them to come to Wal-Mart with us. There were about 7 of us, who, long story short, ended up a grocery story and decided to buy some beer and sit out by the pool, playing games.

The game we’d elected to play was a board game called Battle of the Sexes. We had sexes, so we split up accordingly and played. We all agreed we had such a great time. We can’t agree that H.R. would agree with us, as some of the questions just turned silly and the inevitable sexual banter between men and women began (not by me, just to have you know! J ). I’m always curious why this happens. I often recall a scene in “When Harry Met Sally” about the inability of men and women to ever truly be friends. The night ended (the guys cheated us out of a win and proceeded to the let other group of women win, so needless to say my competitive self was not happy!) and we all went to bed, excited by the prospect of spending an entire week with each other.

The week progressed about the same every night. We’d get back from class, workout, eat, then convene by the pool for games (B.O.T.S., Texas Hold ‘em, Blackjack, B.O.T.S. rematch – which we lost on a “proceed to the end” wild card by the guys). Each night the dynamic became a little more gelled and the innuendo flew more freely. The gentleman from the airport shuttle was not shy in expressing his attraction to me, and I was open in expressing his wedding ring to him! J Not that, he would ever think of cheating. I was flattered and amazed at the fact he could express this, knowing it wouldn’t go any further. (AJ, please save all naïve and fatherly comments, I can hear them from you already! J ) The other people in attendance every night were mostly CRR’s. They were 4 females (me included) and two males (well, one of these other two males was a CSR, but…). One of the other males, a CRR, was also married with children.  I was flirty with both of them, in a way most of you are very familiar with seeing from me. Mostly, though I was just having a good time – laughing, joking (with all) with maybe a playful touch on the arm or so every now and then during conversation for the two gentlemen.

Yes, yes…it’s a pretty obvious story, with the plot laid out there, but a goofy little twist. Last night, the typical rhythm we had fallen into was a bit broken. We opted to (as a group) go across the street to Bahama Breeze for dinner. We ran into the service supervisor in the lobby and invited him along. We had a good time and most everyone was planning on convening around the pool after dinner. We also invited two of  salesmen we knew (he was from one of the CRR’s district and his roommate) to join us after they finished dinner. The male CRR who had been around us all week was prompted by our instructor to ask me to help him with physical therapy for a neck injury he incurred during a car accident last month. We made sure and took the proper precautions for a non-compromising treatment session. (3 or 4 other CRR’s were present, the one being the other male in our class.) After dinner out by the pool, were all tired and instead of one big group conversation, we were all having little individual conversations. The two other salesmen joined us and it was a milder version of the nights before.

I’m not really sure what happened to get us to the next part. Not for any partaking of alcohol on my part, but more because I guess the events were so insignificant, it’s hard to recall them. Anyway, I do remember the presence of the male CRR’s arm around the back of my chair (he was sitting next to me) and his fingertips barely brushing the top of my shoulder. (Can you guys picture this? It was much more innocent than it may have come off, but if it had been a girl sitting next to me stretching her arm out, the positioning wouldn’t have been different.) The service guy started saying (fairly loudly) that he was jealous. In a somewhat playful manner, but still you could hear the little bit of truth in his voice. I have to admit I felt a bit more comfortable in the presence of the CRR (I don’t know if men can relate, but girls, you know the feeling you get when you know someone likes you and even though the arrangement has been made nothing will happen, you still feel as thought they might try something? Yeah, it was like that.) than in the service guy’s. so, I decided better to call it a night. Most everyone had gone up, the two other women still downstairs decided they should go to. So, we all (guys included) piled in the elevator and went to bed.

A short time later, there was a knock on my door. (Isn’t there always? I mean, when there’s sexual conversation in a story, and alcohol, isn’t there always a late night knock on the door? ) I answered it to find, the male CRR standing (drunk) in front of my door. (See? Twist.) I’m not going to finish the back and forth that took place between he and I (it’s irrelevant), but I will say I finally convinced him to leave my doorway and go back to bed. Where he proceeded to call our room and I proceeded to hang up on him and leave our phone off the hook.

As I lay my head back on my pillow I couldn’t help but wonder if I had in some way brought on this situation. I felt the need to blog about it (not until right now, on the airplane, of course) because as I was walking away from the door I kept thinking “I’ve been in this situation before. How do I get myself into these things?” If anyone would know, it would be the ones of you who read this (Karen, Amy, Trish…) and have seen this happen to me, hoping one day I’d ask, so you can tell me what it is I do to draw these situations.

I do know I am a flirt. Although, I don’t know that I’d place myself in the sleazy, falling all over people, desperate for attention kind of flirt. I think I flirt with both men and women because I truly enjoy and love people. (Nope, not in that way. No love in that way, but you guys know what I mean.) I enjoy life, their lives, the specialness that makes them who they are and I like to drink it all in. I’ve been told I always try to engage people into groups, bring the ones sitting around like an outcast in. No one should ever feel left out. I feel so blessed by a lot of the people this has brought into my life. The email about everyone having an impact is true. I remember and often think about lots of the people I’ve come across in my life. (And thank God for those of you crazy enough to stick around with me! J ) It’s not all selfless. I enjoy what each of these people has done for me. Perhaps that’s the problem. Maybe somewhere in the flirting and light arm touching, my quest to connect with another  person sends off the wrong signals.

Is there a line between light flirting (for lack of a better thought process on me right now to name this) and “come-and-get-me” smoke signals?