new happenings (as experienced by me)

Once upon a time there was a girl named Jessica who was a new employee at a new job and wanted to impress her new boss very much so she could continue to earn a shiny, new paycheck each week (and actually, in this day and age, it was a shiny, new bank deposit, but we won't worry ourselves about details like that (especially since it is unknown as to whether or not bank deposits are shiny)). When her new boss asked her to complete a new task by delivering a new package to a new building, she gladly rose to the occasion and donned her new-ish coat and ran across the newly snowed on sidewalk (it was Valentine's Day, a relatively new concept to her after celebrating the holiday with newly found gnomes and the like for several years in a row).

The rest of the day passed without any new events until 35.73 minutes prior to her departure on the old, stinky bus. Jessica's boss called her from his cell phone rather than his desk phone (something that was new and unique (but she didn't realize that until later)) and asked her if she would pick up and deliver a package for a different department that was located in a different building. Jessica did not think much of this new task. It did not occur to her that the employees in charge of this package could probably pick up and deliver this package for themselves, especially since the delivery was supposed to take place entirely in the other employees' building. Instead, Jessica told her boss, "Sure!" and then asked, "Where am I going again?" When her boss told her to take her personal belongings in the event that delivering the package would make her miss her bus, Jessica insisted that she could make it back from picking up and delivering the package in the other building with time to spare. Despite her insistence, Jessica’s boss strongly suggested that she take her coat. Being the good, new employee that she was, Jessica listened to her boss and said, "All right. I'll take my coat." And in her mind she was thinking, "Boy, if I can pick up and deliver this package quickly, I can catch an earlier bus! That would be great!" Thus, Jessica made up her mind to pick up and deliver the package as quickly as possible so as to not miss the earlier bus.

After dashing across the way from her work at the COB, Jessica arrived in the lobby of the JSMB. She found the sweet sister missionaries manning the visitor's desk and kindly asked them if they had a package for her to deliver. They immediately handed her a flat and rather squarish package even though she did not give them her name, a fact which seemed rather odd to her in the moment. But because she was a good employee and did not want to miss her bus, she decided to focus her time and energies on figuring out where she should deliver the package rather than trying to figure out why they immediately knew that they should give the package to her.

After obtaining instructions from the sweet sister missionaries, Jessica headed up the stairs to the Jade Room. According to the sweet sisters, someone would be in the Jade Room to receive the package. Upon arriving at the Jade Room, Jessica poked her head in the door. No one was there. "Huh," she said to herself, with a sigh of frustration. "There isn't anybody here. That's odd."

Concerned (especially since time was running out for her to catch her bus), Jessica did not enter the Jade Room as instructed (after all, no one was there as far as she could see), and instead found a sweet elderly missionary man and asked him if he knew who was supposed to be in the Jade Room (he had no idea). So Jessica ran back down the stairs and found the sweet sisters from before. She hoped that they would have better instructions so that she could deliver her package in time to catch her bus.

After listening to her plight ("There wasn't anybody in the room, and I am going to miss my bus!"), the sweet sisters escorted her back upstairs. This time they led her into the Jade Room. But because she acted as if she would bolt from the room (after all, as you may recall, Jessica did not want to miss her bus), the sweet sisters kindly instructed her that she was to stay in the room until someone came for the package. They suggested that she set the awkwardly shaped package down on a table so as to relieve her arms from holding it. Frustrated, Jessica finally told the sweet sisters that she would call her boss and ask him if he had any further information about the package.

Convinced that she would actually stay in the Jade Room, the sweet sister missionaries left Jessica with the package. Pulling out her phone, Jessica began to dial her boss's number.

And then she looked up.

And then she saw David.

And then she started to laugh.

She laughed because she was happy. She laughed because it all started to make sense. She laughed because she was silly (honestly! Who is that concerned about making an earlier bus?). She laughed and laughed and couldn't stop laughing, even when David kissed her. She might have stopped laughing when he sat her down in a chair, knelt on one knee, and asked her, "Will you marry me?" But she definitely started laughing again when she said, "Yes! I will!" She laughed when he opened up the package which contained a peanut butter pizza and a book entitled, Jessica's Search. She laughed when she realized that these were relics from the first time David had ever asked her on a date. She kept laughing as David’s brother and his wife came into the room to congratulate her and David. She even laughed as they showed her the creeper footage they took of her walking and running and dashing up and down stairs with the package.

She was still laughing when she walked with David down the stairs to thank the sweet sisters for helping her despite her stubbornness. And when the especially wrinkly sister kissed her on the cheek, Jessica didn't mind. She was still laughing.

The rest of the story isn't that hard to imagine. Despite ups and downs, Jessica is still laughing and smiling. And David? Well, he laughs and smiles, too. And as long as they keep laughing and smiling and working and loving, they will live happily ever after.

The end.