“I Brought My Lunch.”

"A lunch sits on a blue tablecloth with a brown paper bag and red napkin. There are carrots, a pear, a sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce (chicken salad) and a carton of milk." Image courtesy the National Cancer Institute, 1989, via Wikipedia.
“A lunch sits on a blue tablecloth with a brown paper bag and red napkin. There are carrots, a pear, a sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce (chicken salad) and a carton of milk.” Image courtesy the National Cancer Institute, 1989, via Wikipedia.

 

I’m a lunch person.

If you want to win my favor, butter me up, pitch me an idea, ask me out, or ask me to do something for you that will not be fun for me or that will be very challenging but that I will consider doing because I love you, like you, want to pitch you an idea or ask you out, it would behoove you to ask me out to lunch and discuss everything there. Over a tasty meal in a pleasant, lunch-serving establishment, I am amenable to many things.

This love of lunch probably springs from my continual astonishment that I am, in fact, an adult. I’ve said it before: Whenever I do things like pay a doctor’s bill, return home from an airport, or take my seat at a lunch — to say nothing of a luncheon — I just shake my head. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, I convinced everyone I was capable of saying things like, “The tuna for me, thank you. Rare.”

Of course, not every day is a “Mary, darling, let’s do lunch” day. That’s maybe once a week, if I’m lucky. (People in my world know the strategy, so I do get to go out to lunch with some frequency; I am, as a result, very busy.)

The majority of my lunches during the week are not foofy, though. The majority of my lunches happen at a table in the school newspaper office or between classes at a cafe in the Loop near school. I like these lunches just as well. I love a bowl of soup. I like a tasty salad. I just like to pause in my day and say, “This is the time where I must eat. Everyone just hang on.”

Breakfast is nice. It’s the first thing you eat, that breakfast, and that means the day is fresh. But the day becomes instantly not fresh if you eat something not fresh for breakfast. If you eat the last piece of spelt toast in the freezer (which you heated up in the microwave because you do not own a toaster), then how fresh can the day really be? Dinner is nice, of course, except that by the time dinner comes, unless I really plan for it, I do not want to have a large meal. Why?

Because I had a nice lunch.

*My apologies for a slow week on the ol’ PG. I turned in my project. The project nearly killed me, but but I turned it in an guess what? That. Thing. Is. Fabulous! Maybe I’ll post it! It’s 23 pages long but I’m about as proud of it as anything I’ve done in school so far. Thanks for all the well-wishes, you guys.

 

Comments

15 responses to ““I Brought My Lunch.””

  1. madge Avatar
    madge

    Get a toaster. Please.

  2. madge Avatar
    madge

    Get a toaster. Or a toaster oven. Bread was not meant to be microwaved. Yuk.

  3. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    Post it!!!!

  4. Tara Miller Avatar
    Tara Miller

    Congratulations! Next time I’m in Chicago or you’re in the ATL, let’s do lunch and talk Netflix.

  5. Chelsea Hard Avatar
    Chelsea Hard

    You should post it! I’d love to read it!

  6. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Please DO post the whole project! We wanna see!

  7. Claire Avatar
    Claire

    Congratulations on finishing your project. You should buy a toaster to celebrate.

  8. Margaret Barrett Avatar
    Margaret Barrett

    I enjoy your posts .. you write so well and are so honest in sharing. You do need to get a toaster oven though and try a sandwich made with Trader Joes sprouted rye bread … toasted of course. I hope you post the whole project!

  9. Bonnie Avatar
    Bonnie

    Congratulations! So happy for you!

  10. Melody A. Avatar

    congratulations on getting your project done! Of course , I knew you would. Post it, so we can read it !!! your biggest fan club!! love the lunch idea, sometimes a much better plan than dinner. take care from Iowa

  11. Judy Forkner Avatar
    Judy Forkner

    Good job! Glad to hear your good news. You need to get a toaster–you deserve a better start to your morning!

  12. Jody Avatar
    Jody

    I’m a lunch person too. Eat a light breakfast but love a nice lunch. If it’s a big enough lunch I really don’t want a normal supper much to the dismay of my husband! 🙂

  13. Ann Kelly Avatar
    Ann Kelly

    I’d love to read your project … please post!

  14. Barbara Avatar
    Barbara

    So happy for you Mary, congratulations on your project, can’t wait to read it. By the way, If I have lunch, I don’t have dinner, except for maybe some toast or a bowl of cheerios.

  15. […] But that’s just the micro-level stuff. It’s hard for me to stay put on the macro level, as well. After a string of days laying low, I feel so off. I want to be leaping and leapfrogging and feeling fabulous but I feel logie and grouchy and antsy. It’s important to mention, by the way, my desire to leap and frog about does not mean I have a yen to go outside and catch butterflies or hike the Appalachian Trail or swim laps all day and then link arms with my friends and dance till the sun goes down (or comes up? I don’t know, I’m exhausted just thinking about all that.) Leaping and leapfrogging and feeling fabulous to me can be as simple as getting up and feeling good, then being productive at my desk and then maybe going to lunch. […]

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