I am…

I will be…

I am getting married today.

Being an engaged woman doesn’t mean I can’t have my celebrity crushes. Today I’d like to introduce my other imaginary boyfriend…

Meet Jim Halpert:

(image courtesy of DunderMifflinInfinity.com)

Allow me to clarify. My attraction is not with John Krasinski, but with the lovably dorky character he plays on NBC’s The Office.

John Krasinski isn’t particularly good-looking, nor does he fall under the category of the guys I usually fall for (the clean-cut dudes with a streak of a bad side). If I ever run into someone who looks exactly like him I would think he’s cute in a goofy way but leave it at that.

So then, what is it about Jim Halpert that keeps millions of women strapped in front of the TV, drooling, every Thursday night?

For me, it’s the combination of his wit and humor (and the numerous pranks he plays on Dwight), compassion, and loyalty. He’s the type of guy who was too shy and geeky to talk to girls in high school but eventually comes to his own with his brains and killer personality.

And his love and devotion for Pam! Unlike many others, I do not think the most romantic moment between them was when Jim confessed his love to the then-engaged Pam. I think the best moment was when he angrily chastised her for not taking the chance to follow her dreams of being a designer. To me, only real love can do that: show another person that they’re making the wrong choice, even if it’s the opposite of what that person wanted to hear.

Last week, while driving down West Side Highway my friends and I saw a billboard advertising the upcoming movie Leatherheads. “There goes my imaginary TV boyfriend,” I sighed.

“Him? My friend made out with him in college!”

I almost crashed the car.

“What college did he attend?” I managed to stumble.

“Brown.”

!!! Brown was actually my first choice for some time! Imagine that – I could’ve gone to school with the future Jim Halpert.

When I first met R, I thought he was a typical womanizer and wouldn’t give him the time of day. He tried his best to win me over and when he finally succeeded in taking me out on a date, I gave him the third degree. One of the first questions I asked was, “What is your favorite book?”

“Love Story,” he replied without hesitation.

I laughed him off for two reasons: (1) I knew Love Story well, because it was one of my favorite movies…and I had never come across any reference of it being a book also; and (2) I thought he was blowing smoke up my ass in an effort to get into my pants.

The next time I saw him, he handed me a dog-eared paperback. It was clear it had been read many times over, and it actually seemed to fit perfectly into his hands.

I began reading that night and didn’t stop until I finished.

I later discovered that the book was based on the screenplay for the movie – Paramount had pre-released the book to promote the movie. The book became an immediate success, quickly becoming the best selling fiction in the U.S. in 1970.

The plot itself isn’t particularly creative: boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy marries girl despite objections from his family, boy and girl struggle then finally make it to the top…but at what should be the happiest moment of their lives, the girl gets cancer and dies.

Rather, it is Erich Segal’s writing that draws the reader in:

What can you say about a twenty-five year old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. The Beatles. And me.

Those first lines of the novel summarizes the book while captivating and preparing the reader, in my opinion, one of the best stories of real, imperfect love that is just so damn achingly beautiful.

I have always been a bookworm. I begged my parents to teach me to read at the age of three and have constantly had my nose in a book since. I own hundreds of books and read thousands in my lifetime.

That being said, Love Story still remains one of my all-time favorite books.

xkcd is another web comic I enjoy. I think that the fact that the comic is drawn entirely in stick figures forces the reader to really concentrate on the content, which mainly consists of very geeky humor.

Today’s xkcd was probably one of the best, because as an avid Facebook user (I signed up way back when it first started and Johns Hopkins was one of the beta schools) I can understand the hilarity of the “relationship status” concept.

Enjoy!

As a huge geek, I can’t help but be smitten by geeky proposal stories. So here are my top three favorite geeky proposals:

3. Dashboard Widget Proposal

Earlier this year, a Mac geek created a Dashboard Widget (which, according to Apple, are “mini-applications that let you perform common tasks and provide you with fast access to information”) to propose to his girlfriend. When she was using his computer, he told her to hit F12 and an image of a ring popped out with the words “Will you marry me?”

Needless to say, she said yes, and all (Mac) geeks reveled in delight. You can get more details on this proposal here.

2. The Joy of Tech! Proposal

The Joy of Tech! is one of my favorite comic strips, concentrating on geeky, techie, pro-Apple subjects. Here is their idea of a proposal….and I love it! I really would’ve been swept off my feet if any guy had done this.

1. The Apple Store Proposal

Last summer, Apple opened its famous Fifth Ave store in Manhattan (can you tell I’m a huge Mac head? ). In celebration of the grand opening, Apple set a website with time lapse photos in front of the store. This man took three signs with him to the location at 5:30am and proceeded to propose to his girlfriend on camera:

Here is the direct link to the video on the Apple website – the proposal shows up about 2/3 of the way into the video.