Lunch Break

Sometimes I think I function a little bit better when I’ve had my first glass of the bubbly.
It loosens my inhibitions just a little, allowing me to think more freely and talk more eloquently. I know I may come off as an alcoholic when I say this, but sometimes I wish offices give beer breaks in lieu of cigarette breaks for those who aren’t smokers.

Anyhow, seeing that we’re in Indonesia where even women who smoke are often frowned upon, I think the beer break wish is not going to happen anytime soon. But anyway sometimes I get the next best thing : my lunch break.

You see, a lunch break is only as good as the company you spend it with. You can eat a four course meal and yet leave the table feeling as hollow as a drum if you dine alone or worse, dining with someone you barely know.

In my first year at this office, I was one of the very few young people. The other few are several years older than me, with a background so pristine they could be nuns. These are the prim and proper young ladies of the world, who speak gently and curtsey while they’re speaking (ok, this is an exaggeration, but you get the point).

These ladies hang out and have lunch with the elderly matrons. They talk about children, gossip and almost nothing else. I only endured lunching with them for several weeks, and at the point of dozing off during conversations, I often chose to go alone. To bookstores, salons, massages or browsing the net at my desk.

But several months after, there were more and more people my age joining the department. So slowly but sure we built a tiny revolution.We talk about nothing important, we vent and laugh our asses off, and we *gasp* have fun.

However trivial it may seem to you, but lunching with these people may be the single thing that keeps me sane and grounded during weekdays. These corporate drones who had to give up big dreams because well, dreams don’t pay the bills, do they?

In a couple of years we may turn out to be the group that lunches while talking about diapers, but hey, let’s enjoy the ride -while it lasts.