Tuesday, May 25, 2010

This is my religion

The Holy Lunching Friars of Voondon claim that just as lunch is at the centre of a man's temporal day, and man's temporal day can be seen as an analogy for his spiritual life, so Lunch should (a) be seen as the centre of a man's spiritual life, and (b) be held in jolly nice restaurants~Douglas Adams-The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Yesterday was International Towel Day, a celebration of the life & works of Douglas Adams, my very favorite author of all.

I would dearly love to be a Holy Lunching Friar.

In the days before children I almost actually was.

We went out to lunch almost every day at my last work for pay job. Arbys and the Pig Pit don’t really count as ‘jolly nice restaurants’ because one is fast food & the other a pit BBQ place, but they were our only options besides Sheetz (a gas station that makes good sandwiches) and Mc Donalds.

I’ve always said that, apart from the money, it was lunch I missed most as a stay at home mom. The money to go out to lunch. The freedom to go out to lunch. Lunch with people who for the most part did not need me to order their food, remind them to keep their butts on the seat, stop making that noise, eat your food, no we aren’t going for ice cream.

Though the ice cream one always caused temper tantrums among my co-workers.

What can I say? They didn’t eat all their lunch. I’m not stopping for ice cream if you don’t eat the food you asked for.

The adult conversation. Questions of more words than just ‘why?’. The ability to bitch & moan about the job & other co-workers. Or even discuss world events.

The boys don’t understand the situation with Korea (and I don’t really want them to at ages 6 & 7) or the stock market or the fragility of jobs in the area.

Sometimes I manage to have lunch with DH if his work schedule permits and we do go to jolly nice restaurants like the sushi place or for Thai. But he’s been busy and out of the office a lot the past few weeks so no lunch dates for us.

Lunch alone is nice sometimes but I miss lunch with others.

8 comments:

Debs said...

Where I live, the expression for stay at home mums whose children are old enough for school so they have time for gym/shopping/coffee/time out with other mums is 'Ladies Who Lunch'. It's so nice to share a bottle of wine in the sunshine and talk about all the 'girlie' things no one else wants to talk about with you, and maybe even a bit of current affairs. These lunch times will return!!

helena said...

you know I miss lunch at work too, now that I'm not working out of an office. I prefer th3e chat over lunch to the chat when you first walk through the door.

chizb said...

Now I don't work any more I miss going out to lunch with my fellow workers, it was just a good way to unwind and have a bit of friendly chat x

humel said...

I quite like lunching alone - I must be really antisocial! I can't believe I missed International Towel Day :-(

LizzieMade said...

Ahhh... I do know what you mean. I remember going out to lunch sometimes. Civilised, friendly, interesting conversation, nice food in grown-up places ... I'd have lunch with you... pity about the distance. I suppose it's not quite the same to go out with other mums that you know, to eat a quick sandwich and bitch about events at the school gate!

Still, our current job has its compensations.

Creative Junkie said...

Omgosh, yes. How I miss adult lunches. In restaurants. With real silverware. And no children's menus. Yes, I definitely miss that from my working days. Not worrying about how much it costs and being able to do it almost every day.

Cindy said...

You are a totally hoopy frood, and if you lived any closer, I'd happily meet you for lunch. I miss lunch out too. I work from home, and when I am out at lunch, it is usually to do a presentation for clients, not eat. It's just me and the fridge most days. I could never manage the bistro-mathematics, though, so perhaps it's just as well. I hope you enjoyed towel day. It always makes me a little sad, and a little happy at the same time.

Carrie said...

hehe, on the Ice Cream part. Hope you find some time to lunch with some friends soon. I don't get to do it often but do try once a month to get out for lunch! :)