Tag Archives: Oreo Happiness

Happiness

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It seems of late that people who do not know me well see my Oreo stash and ask me what it’s all about. So I tell them. And then they ask, “and you just share them with everyone?” To which I reply, “Of course!” And then they ask, “Why?” and I respond by describing the happiness it brings us all…even if for a mere sixty seconds. But a handful of times over the past few weeks, after my explanation, some people just shrug, or roll their eyes, or just say, “that makes no sense.” What the what?!?! Are you KIDDING me? You don’t want to make others happy? Even if it comes from a gesture as simple as sharing cookies? Now THAT makes no sense.

In the immortal words of J.M. Barrie…Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.

Character01 - Peter Pan

Day 37

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Party People…I admit it. I am waaaaay behind on these blog posts. Quite a few happy things have happened since the Candy Cane Oreos appeared on the scene. On Tuesday morning, a dear dear colleague, Kevin, who, for the record, is NOT on my team, came on over with a present. He saw the Candy Cane Oreos at the Bullseye Boutique and brought them over only to see that there were already some on top the mountain of Oreos. I really hope dear Kevin did NOT feel defeated because the fact that he saw a new flavor of Oreos, got excited about them, AND brought them into work, coupled with the fact that he is not even on my immediate work team means that the Oreo Frenzy has reached new heights! Amazing. It makes me so happy. And it’s a good thing that Kevin brought in the Candy Cane Oreos because they are flying, FLYING I TELL YOU, off my desk. They are so good, dare I say they are the new favorite? Sorry Birthday Cake Oreos…forgive me until at least the Christmas season has passed.

Speaking of Birthday Cake Oreos, one of my fave colleagues, Tony, told me today that someone told him that she found/discovered Birthday Cake Oreos. And ya know what his response was? You ain’t seen nothin’… Awesome. He told this person who told him about the Birthday Cake Oreos that he had a surprise for her. So Tony stopped by the Magical Oreo Office today to video, YES VIDEO, the Oreo frenzy taking place on the southwest corner of the 14th floor of my building that is my desk so that he could she her how many types of limited edition Oreos truly exist (in the US anyway). So I snapped a picture of him taking the video…
Tony photo
By the way, when Tony came over to take the video, he said, “This is Bananas!!!” To which I replied, “speaking of bananas…” and proudly whipped out the Banana Split Oreos.
Tony’s plan was to show his buddy the Oreo Frenzy video tonight. My teammate and I suggested that we all make her a little variety bag of the limited edition Oreos we have. I can’t wait until she gets the variety bag tomorrow after work!

I also tried the White Fudge Covered Oreos. Awesome. So yum. I can’t believe all these crazy flavored gems are friggin’ kosher. That makes me happy.

Another thing that makes me happy…I am leaving for my honeymoon on Friday. Sooooo, again, I must leave the blog for a bit but I am considering having someone else take over the reins while I am gone. Someone who can monitor the activity and report out (with more regularity than I clearly have been). Oh and my honeymoon travels are taking me to South Africa and Holland…fingers crossed they have some crazy Oreo flavors.

Hopefully someone will get their hands on the gingerbread flavored Oreos while I am away!

Day 35

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Sincere apologies as I have slacked on Oreo Happiness postings. In an effort to redeem myself, I give you the following happy thoughts:

-silly kisses from children
-crisp fall days
-good times with good friends
-REAL belly laughs
-the smell of freshly baked cookies
-strangers saying “bless you” on the street when you sneeze
-football season
-making other people happy

Yesterday, a colleague was on our floor talking to one of my teammates and he was telling her how surprised he was that the neighborhood kids were choosing smarties over chocolate candy during their pre-halloween celebration last weekend. So I chimed in and said, “I like smarties!” and he peeked over to my desk and said, “AND APPARENTLY OREOS!!!” So of course he had one, which made him happy. But he also said that watching movies at home make him happy as do vacation days when there really, truly is NO work involved at all…no phone calls about work, no blackberry, nothing!

I love my parents. They sent me lots of Oreos yesterday. The mountain grows! This makes me happy.

Day 32

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Ya know what makes me happy? When people say “thank you.” It doesn’t take much effort and saying “thank you” goes a long way, in my opinion.

I am heading to the Giants vs. Bears game tonight and that makes me happy. Getting a ticket for the game at the 11th hour makes me happy, too. My friends from NY flew in for the game and I get to spend time with them so that makes me happy.

Birthdays also make me happy and its my friend’s birthday today. He’s a good person and I hope he is happy on his birthday. Once when I was feeling pretty down, he gave me card that said, “When life gives you lemons, throw those lemons back at life and tell life to make its own lemonade.” And he gave me a starbucks card to go enjoy a nice latte and collect my thoughts. I will never forget that he did that for me. It made me happy. (pause for Lemon Twist Oreo)
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It’s a good thing that I ran a marathon last weekend because I am eating a lot of Oreos in conjunction with all of the things I have to be happy about.

Day 30

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Yesterday my colleagues and I boogied on down to the Greater Chicago Food Depository to volunteer. I love going there because I love the people who work there. They are so passionate about the Food Depository’s mission and the work they do. The first time I went there to scope it out as a potential volunteer opportunity as one of the chairs of the Community Relations Committee in grad school, I cried. I was so moved by what we learned on our tour – from the organization’s community outreach, to the educational classes offered (hands-on too!), to the fundraising initiatives, right down to the great big hearts of the individuals who work there.

So what does this have to do with Oreos? Well, I will tell you. Out of all of the tasks that we could have been charged with yesterday, we were responsible for boxing thousands of graham crackers. But not just any graham crackers…Honey Maid Graham Crackers. And who makes Honey Maid Graham Crackers…Nabisco via Mondelez…the same company who makes Oreos. Next to packaging Oreos, I think packaging the Honey Maid Grahams was the closest we could have gotten to incorporating Oreo Happiness into our volunteerism. How’s that for serendipity???

Our goal was to package 6000 boxes of graham crackers. We packaged over 12,000 boxes. That makes me happy. Volunteering makes me happy. And I would imagine that the food insecure recipients of these graham goodies will be happy when they receive them, too.

Shout out to Honey Maid via Nabisco via Mondelez! Shout out to serendipity!

grahams
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Day 22

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Last night, a few of us found ourselves involved in a discussion about #. What does # mean to you? If I called say, the IRS for example, their automated system would most likely instruct me to enter my social security number, followed by the “pound sign.” Or sometimes we use the # sign as an abbreviation for the word “number.” #9. so you could imagine our utter shock and horror when my dear friend Tom explained to us how he was recently corrected by his intern, “…number sign???? Do you mean HASH TAG?!?!?” Soooo, my question is…When did the pound sign officially become “hash tag?” Is it a generational thing? Or are the terms completely different and one applies to social media situations and the other applies to everything else? It’s these types of though-provoking, yet completely irrelevant conversations that make me happy. Ergo, I am enjoying a Mega Stuf Oreo. I don’t care how much filling is in between those two cookies, whether it’s 1.86x the original or 2.68x the original, it’s still a lot and it’s still awesome.

Other happy thoughts that earned Oreos…

“3 day weekends make me happy.”
“Advil makes me happy.”
“Fitting into a smaller dress size makes me happy.” (counterintuitive, I know, but she’s training for the Chicago marathon)

Day 21

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Back to Basics on this Friday…

“Watching how other people eat Oreos makes me happy.”

“Really expensive designer shoes at reasonable prices make me happy.”

“Variety makes me happy.” (I think this comment is directly related to the bazillion types of Oreos I have on my desk)

“Birthdays make me happy.”

“Naps make me happy.”

“Pumpkins make me happy.” (I think this comment is related to Halloween getting close). Sidebar – Candycorn Oreos are scheduled to hit shelves again on September 10th. Yipeeee!!!

“Finding out that someone who I thought did NOT know who I was actually DOES know who I am makes me happy.”

“Good friends make me happy.”

“Seeing my mentees succeed makes me happy.”

Day 15

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As I am hard at work on my project here in Tampa, Florida, I came to the stunning realization that my 3 awesome colleagues that I am down here with have NEVER HAD BIRTHDAY CAKE CREME FILLED OREOs. Well, who am I to deprive these individuals of experiencing the greatness that is Oreo? So I ran out during the lunch hour and grabbed some Oreos from Walmart and brought them back.

Minds.
Blown.

Now, I have to admit, I intended to go to Walmart anyway because I wanted to see what sort of flavors Tampa/Brandon Florida could offer me (I check the Walmart website daily in the hopes that creamsicle and fudge sundae Oreos will magically change from “in stores only” to available online). NOTHING. In fact, I think there was less of a selection here than in the Windy City. At least I was able to bring back some Oreos for my teammates.

One of them even told me that his grandfather, who lived until his late 80s, ate one Oreo every day of his life. Clearly he knew the secret…who needs an apple when you can have an Oreo??

My other teammate was intrigued by my Oreo fascination and began to read the blog. She wanted to know what type of Oreos I have on my desk so it is only fair that I list out the flavors…in no particular order (although mint and birthday cake might be faves but shhhhhhh, don’t say it too loud because they might hear you):

Mint Creme
Golden Birthday Cake
Chocolate Birthday Cake
Peanut Butter
Coconut Fudge
Sherbet
Watermelon
Mini Goldens
Raspberry Fudge
Neopolitan
Chocolate Creme
Triple Double
Strawberries & Cream
Mega Stuf
Heads or Tails
Berry Burst Ice Cream
Summer Oreos
**Lemon Twist Coming Soon**

Now all my desk needs is banana split, fudge sundae, creamsicle, strawberry milkshake, and the Oreo blizzard creme filled ones!!!

Oh, and Kristin has not neglected her responsibilty of keeping track of happy thoughts while I am out of the office. She said a friend came down to visit the other day and had no idea what the “Oreo Desk” looked like and she was shocked. She then took an Oreo and stated that finding out about the “Oreo Desk” makes her happy. Then Kristin said seeing how happy our friend became upon seeing the “Oreo Desk” made her equally as happy so she had an Oreo too! Yay!

Here’s a little update. The four of us on this project in Tampa demolished an entire row of Oreos in less than two hours. Go team! One of my teammates likes the birthday cake creme filling so much, he made his own mega stuf…

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Day 5

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I have committed to putting the twinkie down long enough to type Happy Monday morning.  Under normal circumstances, Monday mornings would not be so happy, but twinkies are back.  Hip Hop Hooray!  Twinkies make me happy.  I am going to have an OREO.

I also have to share a crazy story that truly demonstrates that OREO gods do exist!  My friend is in DC for two weeks for work.  She had a dreadful week last week – leaving her sick child behind for the week, delayed flight (didn’t get in until 4am) lost luggage and a stolen credit card to boot!   Anyway, I thought I would make her smile at the start of her second week stint so I called up Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats Bakery in DC (you Cupcake Wars peeps know what I’ m talkin’ ’bout) and asked if I could order 3 cupcakes to be couriered over to the hotel where my friend was staying so that they would be waiting for her when she checked in.  When I placed the order, I did NOT specify any cupcake flavors because far be it from me to discriminate.  I just said, please send her three of your best cupcakes!  Well, wouldn’t cha know that one of those cupcakes flavors was…  You guessed it, OREO!

In other happy news, my cubicle mate is back at work.  She was on vacay and it was very lonely without her.  Plus she is an integral part of the Oreo frenzy here and she has been out since the blog started.  As it turns out, she had an Oreo when I was away from my desk.  Given her recent absence, she didn’t know that she had to say what makes her happy before she took a bite.  When she told me she had an Oreo (a new type of Oreo that was not here when she left to go on vacation), I promptly informed her of the new rules.  Without a moment of hesitation she said,

“WOW BAO MAKES ME HAPPY!”  Welcome back to the office friend, welcome back.