I have a friend at work. His name is Amir and he his a professor in the Finance and Economics department. Amir always greets me with a smile and a hug or pat on the back. When I first started at working at UVU one of my assignments was to help Amir with the Journal of Business Inquiry, which is an academic journal that is published by the Woodbury School of Business. As people heard I was helping Amir, they all warned me that he could be bossy and mean, and that he would monopolize my time. At the time I was helping Amir, I was also working on a report for the Legal Studies department's ABA approval, which was also very time consuming. One day as Amir was asking me to do something that I knew I wouldn't have time to do, I told him that I had another project I was working on and that I was only supposed to be helping him part time. He looked at me shocked, then apologized profusely for monopolizing all my time...just the opposite of what I expected after what everyone had told me. A few days later, Amir came into my office and told me I wouldn't need to be helping him anymore because he had made other arrangements through the Dean's office. I was sure that after that I would not see much of Amir anymore, but I was wrong. He always goes out of his way to say hi and ask me how I'm doing.
Tonight was the Woodbury School of Business Winter Party. We usually have a Fall Social as a school and then the individual departments have their own individual Christmas parties. This year we got rained out of our Fall Social, so it got rescheduled as a "Winter" party. The party was up at Sundance and it was all very nice. It was kind of fun to be celebrating with a big group instead of just our department.
As Eli and I walked up to the food line, Amir was at the end so I said "Hi" and introduced Eli. Eli and Amir chatted all the way through the line. At the end of the food table as we were getting ready to go to our separate tables, Amir grabbed Eli's arm and said, "Your wife is a very special lady." To which Eli joked, "My father always told me to marry someone better then me" and we went off to our table to eat with the group from my department.
Halfway through dinner I decided to refill my drink. As I walked over to the table where the drinks were, Amir was there getting a cup of coffee. When he saw me walk up, he grabbed my arm and said, "You have the nicest husband!" He then went on to say, "You see God really is a carpenter...well God's not the carpenter, but he's like the carpenter that makes the window and the door fit together perfectly." What a nice compliment!