See more 7 Quick Takes Contributions at Jennifer Fulwiler's Conversion Diary.Meals! That is the theme of the day. Seven different kinds of meals! Maybe it is because I really am trying to stay on a diet -- my doctor would really like that -- that the theme of eating popped up for the seven quick takes. Or, maybe it is because of I tried all day long, well, at least, all afternoon long, to eat lunch and managed to finish it only at 7:00 that eating is foremost on my mind right now. All reason(s) aside, let me describe seven interesting meals I have had of late.
(1) Inception has been playing in theaters near us. At the last minute, one night last week, Donnie and I decided to go see it. I was just home from work, so I had to eat something. Well, let's see -- hot dog and icee, now there is an interesting meal. (There really was not much choice at the theater.) The theater was mostly empty, a sign of the times. Another sign of the times was the "thank you" when we left. With customer quantity depressed, customer service seems to be improving everywhere. With only a few customers, it becomes more important that they are satisfied and return. We had equally pleasant treatment at Foster's Freeze where we went for an ice cream after the movie (yeah, I know, not exactly a diet item). There I got talking with one of the servers about the book, 1984 (don't remember how that particular conversation got started), but the young girl had never heard of it -- another sign of the times. After all, 1984 has come and gone, and thank God, that particular brave, new world did not take shape. However, one young woman of this new century became intrigued enough to declare that she was going to find a copy and read it. Perhaps she did.
(2) The next day, we got up early to paint booths at the mission. Mid-way through the day, we were all pretty hungry. Although we were not the best painters in the world -- I kept getting the yellow and red paints mixed up and would have to re-paint, but that's me in general. I remember trying to paint one of the rooms in our house and really making a mess -- of the room and of me. (If you want to read that story, hop on over to Mahlou Musings to Paint Problem Solution). Fortunately, we did not have to earn our meal. Fr. Ed bought us pizza, which was delivered to the mission olive grove where we were doing the painting. Yum! Pizza always tastes better when shared with friends, working on a project together.
(3) Midweek a couple of years ago, I had an unusual lunch. Well, it would have been unusual were it not to happen on a regular, although not frequent, basis. I had lunch with someone who had worked for me a couple of years ago as a senior manager. I will call him Morrie. Morrie left about a year ago, and I am not sure whether he quit or was fired. He flipped out one midnight, sent me a note quitting his position, and cc'd my boss. Bad decision. I doubt that is was a decision. Rather, more a reaction. I had been concerned about the level of his performance for some time. He was diligent and wanted to do well, but he had a lot of missing skill sets, which created much stress for him. So, I was not surprised to see him quit under stress. Since I had spoken a few days earlier with my boss about how to move Morrie out of his position without loss of face, Morrie's letter of resignation came as a relief to both my boss and me. All would have been well, but Morrie, in the morning, changed his mind. However, I would not allow him to pull the resignation. So, he left us. He ended up at another position in our organization (but not under me) that has allowed him to excel. It is not a management position, and he does regret the move out of management. I find it interesting, amazing even, that he is willing to maintain a collegial relationship, given our history, but he does, and he does want to be mentored. So, periodically we have lunch; I listen to his recent escapades and work accomplishments, and, where appropriate and where I can do so, I offer him advice. This time we selected a Chinese buffet. The restaurant is not important; the collegial interaction is.
(4) Speaking of collegial interaction, last Friday night the senior manager, his assistant, a visiting regional manager who works for him, my admin assistant, our families, including Doah, who was just a day away from his tribulation, had a lovely meal at my favorite restaurant, Jardines. People drove quite some distance in some cases to come here. San Ignatio is about a half-hour off the beaten path (and away from my work). Everyone had a wonderful time, and Doah had a lot of people, including two children, with whom to interact, taking his mind off his recent history, at least for a bit. Even better -- no Mexican food is better than that prepared here.
(5) Over the past week, Donnie has managed to get two free meals from Subway. One meal was for all three of us last Saturday. We got our sandwiches and brought them home to each together and watch a movie. Then, yesterday, Donnie and Doah helped Desiree, the young lady living with Noelle, move her household goods from her previous apartment to Noelle's complex. Money was a little tight, so Donnie and Doah got a free meal. Now, there is a good explanation to this. I keep forgetting to use the points on my Subway card so I had built up enough points for five sandwiches -- handily, they were available for us just when we sort of needed them (or, at least, could use them).
(6) Sunday night was not for a diet. It was quite special. A friend, Hussein, invited Donnie, Doah, and I to his house at sunset for iftar, the breaking of the fast that occurs each day during Ramadan. At every iftar, there are heaps of food, and Hussein's house was no exception. His large family gathered. Since we have celebrated events with them before, we knew them all, and Doah has a good relationship with their children so for him there was another few hours of distraction, which was good. Not good was all the calories in that food. (I was sort of hoping that the food had no calories, but I knew better. I ate, anyway!) 
(7) Today I made up big time for that gorging at iftar. I conservatively took in a Greek salad for lunch at work today. I had started to eat the salad when my boss's boss called. I was supposed to be briefing a high-ranking visitor a short time later, and my boss's boss wanted me to make some changes in the slides. We talked through those, he making the changes as we talked, then emailed the slides to him. I laid down my fork, forwarded the slides to my admin assistant to make printouts, and ran a disk over to our tech people to replace the briefing I had installed an hour earlier in our conference room. Then I took one more forkful of salad before our honored guest showed up. After the briefing, which went well, I sat down to finish my salad, ate a few forkfuls while reading the itinerary for our honored guest, and noticed for the first time that I was supposed to be at another meeting with him at our other local campus, and the meeting was just about to start. Youch! I grabbed my keys and flat-out ran to my car. I arrived late, of course, but at least not too late. (Well, at a business meeting there is no such thing as fahionably late, but I did not get glared at, so I figured that all is well that ends well.) That meeting ended at 5:00; I got back to my office around 6:00, and, yes!, it was quiet. I picked up my fork. Yes! No phone call; no one walking in the door. In peace, I finished my lunch, then went home!Wishing you all a great weekend, replete with enjoyable meals.
