Minutiae-blogging about Lunch
vroomsplat has posted a challenge I can't resist: "[list] chronologically the places where you have worked, starting with your first real job, with notes about lunch culture."
For discretion's sake I'll list the jobs by location rather than by company.
Washington, DC: The office was in a rather bad part of town; the only lunch places nearby were fastfood, and so I only very rarely went out to lunch with coworkers. Really the only choice was either to eat at the cafeteria or bring a lunch. As a schoolkid, I'd always brought my own lunch and turned my nose up at cafeteria food, and continued that habit here.
For a few months I sat alone in the cafeteria, but soon had the good luck of getting introduced to a whole gang of really great people my own age. I really miss that group. I've kept in touch with some of them over the years, but of course there's no getting the old band back together again.
Boston, MA: This office was in a medical district, so there were hardly any eateries within an easy walk, and I no longer had a car. There was a cafeteria which I occasionally used and had to admit served good food, but I still preferred to brown-bag it, out of both habit and an aversion to waiting in lines.
I seem to recall I ate with my two officemates more often than not. Both were quite a bit older than me, but they were fascinating people. I miss them, too. One of them I still keep in touch with a lot.
The other was one of those people that I've come to realize I was lucky to work with, because they're awesome, but so involved in their job that you'd never have met them any other way. It's odd when you're that kind of person's coworker: you probably get as much, or more, quality time with them than their own families do. But you know that as soon as you or they leave the company you will never, ever see or hear from them again.
New York, NY: For the first time in my career, I was now in a place with an embarrassment of riches when it came to lunch options. No cafeteria, and a tiny breakroom, but literally hundreds of restaurants in a square mile. (Manhattan is insane that way.)
For most of my five years here, though, I still brown-bagged it every day. Coworkers seeing me in the breakroom would commend me for saving money by not going out, though it really had nothing to do with economy and everything to do with habit.
About a year or two ago, I was infected with the sybaritical ways of the city and decided I was tired of having eaten essentially the same lunch every day since high school or earlier. (There was an interregnum in college in which I ate fastfood or cafeteria food for lunch everyday.) So now I bring a lunch three or four days a week, and go out to eat one or two days, Fridays especially. (And lo, two puddings smoked upon the board!)
I do find myself going to the same places pretty often when I'm by myself: one Subway location in particular (instead of closer ones) because it has ample seating, which is important when you want to read over lunch.
And that's what I do at least 75% of the time: eat lunch by myself and read. I occasionally go out to lunch with other people, but have no regular crew. It has been my curse at this company that whenever I befriend someone and start having lunch with them all the time, they soon leave the company.
Ah, well. At least I get a lot of reading done...
A final note: here is a description of the lunch I pack every day. It's vaguely meant to be healthy, though you'll see it's far from exemplary. Over the years I've refined it to not need refrigeration. I hate having to refrigerate my lunch: it's one more thing to remember in the morning, and to worry about on the way to work ("Is this heatwave going to spoil my food and give me E. coli???").
Also, a lunch that doesn't require refrigeration gives me the flexibility to leave it in my messenger bag for the next day if someone invites me out to lunch. And finally, the lines here to use the one and only microwave to reheat leftovers are pretty long, and I hate lines.
So here's what my standard lunch consists of, without more ado:
-- peanut butter sandwich
-- small (hand-packed) bag of Lay's BBQ chips
-- Quaker Oats granola bar
-- box of raisins
And yes, that's the order I eat them in.
I used to eat a fruit cup instead of the box of raisins. (And that came third instead of fourth in the eating order.) I eventually stopped eating fruit cups for the following reasons:
1) It made me feel kind of like a kid to eat them.
2) They sort of taste bad.
3) They required me to bring a spoon with me, since our chintzy breakroom never has any plasticware. Unfortunately, until I drilled myself properly, I often forgot to pack a spoon, or else threw it away with my bag after lunch -- and yes, I was using my own silverware instead of disposable spoons. (Aren't you going to praise me for my ecological sensitivity?)
For discretion's sake I'll list the jobs by location rather than by company.
Washington, DC: The office was in a rather bad part of town; the only lunch places nearby were fastfood, and so I only very rarely went out to lunch with coworkers. Really the only choice was either to eat at the cafeteria or bring a lunch. As a schoolkid, I'd always brought my own lunch and turned my nose up at cafeteria food, and continued that habit here.
For a few months I sat alone in the cafeteria, but soon had the good luck of getting introduced to a whole gang of really great people my own age. I really miss that group. I've kept in touch with some of them over the years, but of course there's no getting the old band back together again.
Boston, MA: This office was in a medical district, so there were hardly any eateries within an easy walk, and I no longer had a car. There was a cafeteria which I occasionally used and had to admit served good food, but I still preferred to brown-bag it, out of both habit and an aversion to waiting in lines.
I seem to recall I ate with my two officemates more often than not. Both were quite a bit older than me, but they were fascinating people. I miss them, too. One of them I still keep in touch with a lot.
The other was one of those people that I've come to realize I was lucky to work with, because they're awesome, but so involved in their job that you'd never have met them any other way. It's odd when you're that kind of person's coworker: you probably get as much, or more, quality time with them than their own families do. But you know that as soon as you or they leave the company you will never, ever see or hear from them again.
New York, NY: For the first time in my career, I was now in a place with an embarrassment of riches when it came to lunch options. No cafeteria, and a tiny breakroom, but literally hundreds of restaurants in a square mile. (Manhattan is insane that way.)
For most of my five years here, though, I still brown-bagged it every day. Coworkers seeing me in the breakroom would commend me for saving money by not going out, though it really had nothing to do with economy and everything to do with habit.
About a year or two ago, I was infected with the sybaritical ways of the city and decided I was tired of having eaten essentially the same lunch every day since high school or earlier. (There was an interregnum in college in which I ate fastfood or cafeteria food for lunch everyday.) So now I bring a lunch three or four days a week, and go out to eat one or two days, Fridays especially. (And lo, two puddings smoked upon the board!)
I do find myself going to the same places pretty often when I'm by myself: one Subway location in particular (instead of closer ones) because it has ample seating, which is important when you want to read over lunch.
And that's what I do at least 75% of the time: eat lunch by myself and read. I occasionally go out to lunch with other people, but have no regular crew. It has been my curse at this company that whenever I befriend someone and start having lunch with them all the time, they soon leave the company.
Ah, well. At least I get a lot of reading done...
A final note: here is a description of the lunch I pack every day. It's vaguely meant to be healthy, though you'll see it's far from exemplary. Over the years I've refined it to not need refrigeration. I hate having to refrigerate my lunch: it's one more thing to remember in the morning, and to worry about on the way to work ("Is this heatwave going to spoil my food and give me E. coli???").
Also, a lunch that doesn't require refrigeration gives me the flexibility to leave it in my messenger bag for the next day if someone invites me out to lunch. And finally, the lines here to use the one and only microwave to reheat leftovers are pretty long, and I hate lines.
So here's what my standard lunch consists of, without more ado:
-- peanut butter sandwich
-- small (hand-packed) bag of Lay's BBQ chips
-- Quaker Oats granola bar
-- box of raisins
And yes, that's the order I eat them in.
I used to eat a fruit cup instead of the box of raisins. (And that came third instead of fourth in the eating order.) I eventually stopped eating fruit cups for the following reasons:
1) It made me feel kind of like a kid to eat them.
2) They sort of taste bad.
3) They required me to bring a spoon with me, since our chintzy breakroom never has any plasticware. Unfortunately, until I drilled myself properly, I often forgot to pack a spoon, or else threw it away with my bag after lunch -- and yes, I was using my own silverware instead of disposable spoons. (Aren't you going to praise me for my ecological sensitivity?)