The "More Details"

The Company I work for was acquired not so long ago by a larger company...as is the way of mergers and acquisitions. And now, as a result, I get to work with two other sister-companies; one in Chicago and one in the Hague, Holland. Initially at the onset of the first merger inventory responsibility of the Chicago company was transferred to mine in NY. Some of the Holland inventory responsibility was also transferred here, in the capacity of only what was sold in the USA. The remaining Dutch inventory that was sold internationally still remained with their company.

But now that there are massive changes and shifts, responsibilities and job descriptions are altering yet again. Editorial and Manufacturing are being outsourced to India and all inventory responsibilities for ALL parent company products are being centralized to my company's office in NY.

So that means learning how the foreign product operates and sells in foreign markets as well as the domestic market. And to do that, training must be provided by those that have previously dealt with it, i.e. the two guys that were just visiting from Holland: Ludolf and Jelle.

Ludolf is the Inventory guy, the one that I've dealt with in the past. It's his job responsibilities that are coming here because he was recently promoted and now working on other things. Jelle is the Manufacturing guy that I will now be working with to make sure our books and products are printed and in stock over seas. I really didn't have much interaction with Jelle in the past, so this training stint was extremely important to understand how things work over in the land of wooden clogs.

Aside from completely understanding each other on a professional level, we soon came to realize that there really wasn't much of anything we didn't have in common. Music, movies, TV, literature, politics, education, life interests, and the list goes on and on. Oh yeah, and our senses of humor are exactly the same as well, so it was basically one laugh-fest after another. After spending a scant few hours with each other, we already had our own inside jokes and silly looks.

After our first day of training, we all went out to dinner together. After dinner, they still wanted to see some of the sights NYC had to offer, so I took them into Times Square. We ended up at the Pig and Whistle Bar where the three of us were just talking about anything and everything for hours. It felt like we were long time friends instead of just having met for the first time that morning. It was a very odd, but 'butterfly in the stomach' kind of feeling.

After we were ready to call it a day, I was just expecting to put them cab and point them in the right direction towards their hotel. When Jelle asked me where I had to head to, and let him know it was about 13 blocks I had to walk the opposite direction, he wouldn't even let me walk on my own. He absolutely had to escort me to make sure I got there safely. And who said chivalry was dead! At least, it isn't in Holland...

The next morning, I can't deny that I didn't put a little extra thought into my wardrobe. After doing it up nice I felt so positive about myself, I was glowing. For the rest of the morning, there was more training, but it wasn't as boring as I thought is all was going to be. The shared looks and sly smiles were fantastic. It had me a-twitter!

While we were lunching, we were again in our own little world of shared fancies. When I learned he didn't have to be at work on Friday, I asked him why he wasn't going to stay an extra day or so. He said that he would have loved to, but the company had already paid for the plane ticket home and we all know what a hassle it is to change flight plans. So instead we talked about plans for future visits, discussing the possibility of me visiting later on in the year.

*sigh*

It felt so amazing to just completely click with a person, and I know it sounds insane...I can't believe a lot of it myself, but part of me feels like this is what people mean when they say, "when you know, you'll know." And for the rest of the weekend I joked around saying I had met my future husband, and endured the eye-rolls because it was just a fun thing to say and day-dream about. Hey, we all need something to day-dream about, and I am perfectly content with mine.