The Dark Side

A friend of mine who works downtown in a hipper, more socially-responsible job than me, had the day off and decided to come up to the 'burbs to have lunch with me.  She's a vegetarian and so I figured she'd want to go to the panini place or the cheap-but-excellent Industrial Park Indian buffet. (The Indian buffet in the industrial park just south of the business park really is very good, but I was unable to take a picture when I ate there.  I had gone with civilized people and it's not OK to take pictures of empty, filthy place when you're in polite company.)

But for some reason my very cool, very hip, very vegetarian and very anti-establishment friend wanted to go to a chain restaurant that was reminiscent of the movie Office Space, only a bit more upscale.

We walked in and she exclaimed, "This place is full of men!"  And I was like, duh, it's a high-tech business park, what do you expect?  If we had gone to the panini place just outside the business park -- which, incidentally, makes an awesome veggie sandwich -- there would have have been more women.

Anyways.  I had the fish and chips because it seemed safe.  She had the fish tacos because there were no reasonable vegetarian options (surprise!) and she's actually a fishetarian.

She finished her fish tacos, but I couldn't finish my two giant, extra-oily battered fish fillets with extra-salty fries, so I got a doggy bag.

"Fat, I am your father."

The panini place might have been better, but I would never have experienced a black take-out container that reminded me of Darth Vader's dirty helmet at the beginning of Star Wars. (Though I suspect George Lucas scrubbed it for his digitally remastered abominations).

A Spicy Soup and Spicy Conversation!

After a week of feeling like ass, home sick, I'm back at work, but still not 100%.  I needed soup.  I went out and got myself soup and sandwich from the panini place down the road. The soup was spicy Thai carrot soup. It was thick and spicy, just like today's lunch conversation. The only difference was that, unlike the soup, the conversation was not in good taste.

Lunch in the trash, just like the conversation.

Today we discussed porn. Yes, porn.  We discussed people viewing porn on an airplane. We discussed people submitting digital-to-analogue conversion bugs in porn movies.  We discussed five guys watching porn in a van. I shut down the conversation by asking if the guys in the van were watching gay or straight porn. Apparently you don't ask guys that.

Anyhoo.

After lunch, I solicited Silvia for a bland coffee in one of the Common Use Office Cafe au Lait Cups. I had forgotten that Silvia made bland, tepid coffee.  That long espresso tasted like mildly coffee-flavoured warm water.  It could dampen all passions.  It was like the antithesis to the lunch conversation.

The espresso's so cold, Blue Mug has turned away to the side.