Elle- one of my favorite people in this world!

My version - How we Met
Ellen and I worked together at a consulting company. I worked on event planning, marketing and business development projects while Elle worked on environmental and sustainability projects. I started as an Intern and then I was promoted two times. While I was an intern, Ellen and I did not speak very much. She had deep desires to be my friend but she was afraid that she would suffer from separation anxiety if I chose not to work with the company after my internship. When I was offered a full time job, I could see her excitement and her longing to befriend me, but then fear gripped her because she realized that I was too cool for her. LOL - just kidding. Elle and I had a long conversation on Sunday and I asked her to send me her memories of how we met.

Her version – How we Met
My ITAC supervisor who I like very much and with whom I am still friends, offered my technical skills service to the ITAC President for her Bottom-up Goal Setting initiative.I was paired with the Event Planning Intern who I had seen around the office (whom was promoted to a full-time Corporate Communications Consultant.) It isn't a large office. There were only 40 employees total. I worked in the Sustainability Practice area of the consulting firm though and she worked in the Business Development department. I had never really spoken with her before. I was introduced to Rose-Anne Angus. I learned Rose-Anne is a warm, friendly, people person type of personality of American-Jamaican background. My personality is much more reserved including my humor which can be categorized as very dry and I have a German ancestral heritage. Despite our different backgrounds and personalities, we actually share many traits, have many similar interests, and think along the same lines.

I moved to China in 2008 and of course Elle comes to support me

Then she is unable to bear the fact that I will be away, so she takes the first opportunity to close the gap. {Elle's send off to Budapest, Hungary}
Elle, John, Sonia, John and I celebrating Ellen before she leaves for Budapest
Karaoke in Yidu, China
Visiting the third largest square in the world - Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China

The Great Wall of China - Mutianyu section

Elle and I drove from Pittsburgh to Ohio to see some of the girls from the "China crew" (Mary Beth, Aubree, JingJing, Jennifer)
Girls at the Cheesecake Factory
We move back to America within a few months of each other.

The Truth

So there we are, two new-to-each-other co-workers burning the midnight oil to get this work deliverable done before the 9 am All Staff meeting the next morning. Our shared hard-working work ethic led us to skip dinner and pressed passed taking any breaks. We are in one word feeling - loopy. For stress relief, I crack one of my dry jokes while Rose-Anne is sipping on her non-environmentally-friendly bottle of water. Rose-Anne warns me, I cannot make her laugh while she is drinking. We continue working some more and again I crack another one of my type of jokes as Rose-Anne sips her water. And this joke was really funny. So she couldn't hold back the laughter. She puts her hand of her month unable to swallow the water yet unable to laugh out loud, tries to keep the water in her mouth. And I keep on going with the joking, the water is leaking out through her cupped hand now. I don't let up on my joking. Finally, she is choking from hysterics. And all she feels she can do and ultimately does do is - spits the remaining water on me! {Ro: I did not spit the water on her, she just happened to be too close and it came out pouring on her!}

We both laugh now in disbelief of what just happened. And from that day that she spat on me, we have been good friends. I say praise the day you spat on me Rose-Anne. The End.