BABY YOU CAN BUY MY LUNCH

Today I'll be celebrating my third consecutive provided-for lunch. I'm not calling it a "free lunch", because we all know there is no such thing. For these lunches, for example, I've had to endure three days of training. But there are lunches where you don't have to actually buy the food at the grocery store, prepare it, pack it, carry it, stuff it in the refrigerator in the industrially-appointed kitchen area, then at Noon go stand in front of the microwave praying that you don't have to be forced to interact with your co-workers while it heats up, and then eat it by attacking a gooey, rubbery mess inside of a Ziploc container, and then go back to the kitchen area to clean the dishes, while once again hoping not to have to make small talk.

No, these lunches involve getting in a car and leaving the workplace, sitting down at a restaurant and being served a meal cooked by a professional, having a fine conversation with people in your particular field of endeavor who have traveled long distances to be there, eating the meal, watching as one of the intrepid travelers pays for it on a company card, and then leaving the restaurant with a fine mint, perhaps, arriving back at work several minutes if not hours past the usual lunch-ending time. These lunches are those type of lunches. I like those type of lunches. And today is my third straight day of having one. Hurray!