Got Pretty Eyes?

You know how sometimes a nice compliment can just make you smile the rest of your day? Even if the person and situation are both a little bit random? Yeah, me too.

We had protesters in our building yelling all day (see post below), giving me a headache and generally wearing me down with their consistent cheering. Our office was generally quiet inside, with a few people coming in for meetings, but not too much activity in all. It was just kind of a blah, boring, normal Monday.

At one point in the afternoon, I ventured out of the office, walked in the opposite direction of the protesters, made my way upstairs (it was much quieter up there - lucky offices) to drop a few things off in an office, then wandered back down to my office. As I walked through a hall, I saw one of our mail friends who comes by with packages and deliveries for us to sign for. Usually staff assistant Bryan signs for things, but if he's gone or busy, the guy comes to my desk and chats for a second while I sign for whatever he's brought us. He's shorter, bald, probably in his late 30s, a little pudgier. Really nice guy, talks in a bit of a mumble, checks up occasionally on how my running is going ever since I told him I had gone for a run one weekend months ago. Good memory.

We said hi as I passed, and he asked if I'd been running lately, and I told him, in more words than necessary (as is my usual way of communicating) that I hadn't been able to run lately, but I was hoping to get some running in this week (total lie - I'm actually hoping I'll have good valid excuses for not going, so I don't feel so bad about skipping it...). He smiled, I said "see ya!" and then walked off, finding my way back to my office by following the shouting breadcrumbs of the protesters.

A little while later, our mail friend came to our office with a large delivery. Co-workers Jay and Darin were at my desk talking to me, when Darin realized the package was something he'd sent back to our office from California, something to show the Congressman. So he got the package, and Jay got distracted by the new present. I turned back to my desk to keep working when mail friend popped his head around the desk hutch and said hi. I stopped and chatted with him for a second; he asked me about life, what my long-term plans were, and I quickly noted that small chitchat was unlikely today. So I gave him a pretty vague, general answer (basically, it was a "who knows?" answer because, if I'm honest, that's pretty true), and then asked him about his plans. I strained to pay attention - this is where his slight mumble makes things difficult. But he explained some of his career plans, his business goals, and whatever else goes with that.

And then suddenly, he says, "You got some pretty eyes on you, did'ja know?" And I smiled and said thank you, slightly flustered and embarrassed, and he just agreed with himself and smiled, and I didn't know what to do with myself after that, so I said thanks again.

Then his next comment took me a minute to decipher: "I won't say more, don't wanna get your boyfriend mad at me or something, haha..." When I finally figured out what he had said, I stalled quickly before spitting out, "Oh yeah, well, there are a couple of those you'll need to watch out for, hahaha..."

He smiled and laughed, and then we said good day and he walked out.

I'm not the best at responding to allusions to boyfriends and such - I'm just never expecting it, so it always, always throws me off and I stammer stupid responses. While I stand by the deflection my response gave on this one, I still felt stupid.

But I will take that compliment for all that it's worth. It's a nice way to start off the week, right? Being told that I got some pretty eyes on me.

And don't you forget it.