Lunch v. Dinner

For the record, it is still today despite the fact that it is tomorrow. We all know that today ends not at the absurdly early hour of midnight, but rather when sleeping begins. As such, I have not shirked my responsibilities by posting my daily ten minute writing at 1:01 a.m. (Eastern). So there.

Today I was reminded that I am a dinner person, but not really a lunch person. A good friend of mine has almost no interest in food whatsoever as far as taste and enjoyment go. He has said to me before that the time spent eating is thirty minutes of his life that he would much rather spend doing something else. Initially, I felt sort of bad for him. Burger and fries for dinner are safe and simple and low-hassle, but you're missing out on a lot. I have about maybe nine or ten meals upon which I regularly dine, and it is extremely important to me that they are tasty, original, etc. ("Etc?" First of all, you're writing about food, which is a boring topic, and then you're going to be lazy enough to use "etc." instead of actual - hey, what are you doing with that axe? Put that - WOAH! You almost cut my foot off! Dammit! Calm down and - OW! My fingertip! Jesus, man, you're out of your mind with that thing! Fine! Fine! I'll go away! Forget what I said! I'll be waiting outside. Damn.) The result is that I look forward to dinner, sometimes as much as 24 hours before I actually eat it. The thought, for instance, of a plate of Chicken Pad Thai makes me want to be hungry right away, because the stuff is just so freaking good. Long story short, dinner is typically a joy for me, and as such, I have often felt that my friend was missing out on one of life's small but constant pleasures. And then today there was free lunch pizza offered at my place of employment. I ate it and was pretty satisfied (although a little food comatose at about 2 p.m.), but it made me think about lunch as an eating opportunity as compared to dinner. I eat a turkey sandwich and chips or fruit for lunch about 6.9 out of 7 days a week. Gatorade is the drink. For me, lunch is what all food is for my friend: 30 minutes of my life that I can't get back. Hence, reliability and blandness prevail. And I'm perfectly fine with this. I don't know that there is a point to this (the guy who has issues with relevance and his 9.8 fingers are currently waiting outside), but it might be that it is often very easy to look at people's relatively extreme choices and fail to see the small versions of those same choices in your own life. It's all about looking around you, and paying attention. Are you paying attention? I could stand to do a better job, but I'm always working on it.