Congratulations Commander Meek!

One of my most FAVORITE coworkers had been keeping something from me...

Well, she'd been keeping it from us all.

You gotta keep secrets sometimes like that. See, if one iota of your personal business gets out at the workplace, it is picked up QUICK.

'Tis like a small morsel of bread which falleth to the ground... Every pigeon  in the world sees it and swoops down on it. It gets picked up and pondered, torn apart, chewed up in it's beak...

And embellished.

And we don't want that. It gets a bit messy, I tell you.

So yes, she was keeping a secret.

So... One late afternoon, I'd come back to my desk from the lab and I saw that someone had placed an envelope on my desk. I opened it. There was a pretty cream colored card wrapped in a delicate green ribbon. I opened the card and read it. I saw Meek's name. And some fella's name. I didn't read it, just glanced at those names, which were bigger and bolder than the other writing on the card.

Commander Meek has daughters in their 20's. I immediately thought, this is a wedding invitation, but she messed it up. Why in the world would she put her name in bold?

I walked over to her cubicle, which is next to mine.

"Hey, you messed up these invitations. You forgot to put Bel or Tee's name on it."

She didn't say anything. I walked back to my desk.

She came over a minute later and said that it was her wedding invitaion.

She was getting married.

O_O

Well you could've just knocked me outta my chair with a feather.

I made much ruckus. This was cool, as it was the day before a holiday. It was late and everybody was gone.

"I'ma go have me a DRANK!" I hollered.

Of course I didn't. Sure felt like celebrating, though..

I think I was more happy that she kept it out of the workplace.

People need to have a private life. Folks love to ponder people's business, even to the point of making stuff up. Geez. Private life, man!

So I was happy about ALL of that. Yes sir.

I told my best friend LadyTee about this...

"That Detroit Meek Meek! That girl getting married, man! And she kept it hush hush!"

"Yes," LadyTee said. "That's that stealth military training. That's what that is. That military training."

"No," I said. "That's that I-don't-want-yall-ninjas-in-my-business training!"

Yes! And I love-ed that!!

We usually work late together, getting off around 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening. So there were snatches of time to talk about little things when no one was there. She knows that I am heavily into music, so we listened to some wedding march songs, and looked up songs for the father/daughter dance. I told her I would buy the songs from Itunes and place the one's she wanted on CD.

"I'll pay you back, LadyLee"

*LadyLee gives Meek the hard side-eye*

That's a free one, babes. On me.

And you know me. I bought some gifts. I was excited. I brought them to work. Waited around for everyone to leave. Everyone had left. Meek and CowgirlCre were in the back room prepping samples, working EXTRA hard. I went back to my desk and got the gift bag, and brought it back to her. I opened her gift for her, lol. (Her hands were dirty with the crowder peas she was grinding up, lol).

Here are her gifts... As you can see, they are simple enough. Nothing fancy.

She loves sesame and seaweed rice chips. I bought her a pack of those.

She turned me on to those. They are GREAT.

I'd been running around calling her "SALT" because of her undercover ways with this whole big change in her life. She'd never seen the movie about the undercover secret sleeper agent. So that was one of her gifts.

"That's who you are, Meek!" I'd holler everyday. "MEEK SALT".

I also came across some wonderful goat's milk soap a few weeks ago. I was telling her how much I love it. So I bought her a gift pack of that.

And you know I love making cards. I made her one with her name and many fancy doves flying around it.

I also bought her a Home Depot gift card. She requested Target gift cards, but we were talking about how Home Depot is the place for everything. I told her I would get a card from there.

She planned to get married in Detroit. This meant she needed to fly home. So her plan was to come to work and catch the MARTA train to the airport.

I balked at the idea.

"Lucy [the Lexus] will take you! Lucy will get you there! Lucy!"

Yes, I convinced her to allow me to take her to the airport. NO WAY I would allow her to catch the train to her plane to get to her wedding. NO WAY.

"Lucy will get you there! You can even ride in the back seat if you want to, you know, like you're a movie star!"

LOL.

I even bought her some snacks for the ride. She real finnicky, so I had to find some unsalted nuts, and some Dove chocolate.

She wouldn't ride in the back seat. She sat up front. And she stashed her snacks in her purse for the plane trip.

I dropped her off in record time. (Meek is notoriously late for stuff. Part of the reason I wanted to get here there waaaaay before time!)

I am so happy for her. She is one of the nicest people I know. It has been a pleasure to work with her for the past 10 years. She gets along with everyone, and that is a quality I admire in her. Because that is a quality I don't have. I don't think I'll ever have (And that is fine with me).

So Meek is married and cruising out in the Carribean right now. This has been a LONG week without her at work. LONG. That is who works with me late. I don't do well AT ALL when she and/or CowgirlCre is out. And if they are both out? I might as well just take my tail back home, because the day will be long and strenuos and super quiet.

So it's been very quiet around there. She will be back next week. I told her "Girl, take a whole month off. Bump a week!" But she will be back on Monday. With plenty of stories to tell!

We all have our favorite music to listen to in the lab, so I made a CD of her favorite songs for the ride to the airport. I made a copy for her to take with her also.

Here are the songs.

Can you feel it - Kem
I Can't stop loving you - Kem
If It's Love - Kem
Love Calls - Kem
Voyage To Atlantis - Isley Brothers
For the Love of You - Isley Brorhers
Caravan of Love - Isley Brothers
Choosey Lover - Isley Brothers
Summer Breeze - Isley Brothers
Forever Mine- O' Jays
Sunshine - O' Jays
You Got Your Hooks in Me- O'Jays
Stairway to Heaven - O' Jays
Good Love - Anita Baker

And one of her favorite songs... I wish I didn't miss you by Angie Stone



We can put that song on repeat all day and work all day in the lab to that. Yes indeed!

It has one of my favorite lyrics: "Isn't it ironic... All you wanna do is smoke chronic!"

(singing that HARD in the lab)

"I'm taking this CD with me," she said. "Just in case the DJ don't show up. We can play this."

LOL

Yeah, uh... you can tell her favorite music artists from that list.

So, Congrats Commander! I salute you! Congrats on your special day! I hope you and Mr. Meek have a wonderful day and lifetime together... ON PURPOSE!

(And thanks for giving me permission to blog about this! Much obliged!)