let's do lunch

Last Friday, I had a very stressful morning. You must be thinking, uh-oh another post about stress again. Well, yes it seems like "stress" is a word that's fast becoming a constant in my work life. I had to talk to a very difficult client that morning. And guess what? it was only 9:30 am. The receptionist told me that he wanted to talk to the manager (guess who?) and no one else. I asked the security guard to let the person in. He was not tall, in fact I think I looked a bit taller in my five-foot frame in two-inch heels. His height does not seem to bother him at all. In fact, the way his voice boomed and echoed throughout the office you'd think he was six-feet tall!

He said he wanted an explanation about his contract with the company. So I took pains in explaining it to him in layman's terms as clearly as I could. And then he tells me, he does not know what I was talking about because he never read the contract! At that point I felt like pulling out those make-believe hairs on my chest. He has not read the contract! And he's asking me why he can't understand it?!

The man was becoming unreasonable and even if I tried as hard as I could he never listened to me. I talked to my boss and she told me it was best to have him talk to the Division Head, the Senior Vice President. I don't really know how our big boss did it but he turned the guy around. Note to self, get lessons on persuasion from the SVP. I escorted him outside the building and we shook hands. Odd how that meeting turned out.

When I came back to my desk I was suprised to see it was lunch time already! Ahhh, my favorite time of the day. I consider my lunch break as sacred. If I'm lucky I get to enjoy the full sixty-minutes of it. And those are really precious. It's a time when me and my friends get together and enjoy a good meal. We had lunch out and I was surprised to see a lot of people having lunch out too! I guess it's payday or probably a lot of stressed-out employees needed time away from the office as well.

Everyday my friends and I would take turns in deciding where to have lunch. Are we having Japanese food? American? Italian? Filipino? Korean? Chinese? I find it funny sometimes that being given a lot of choices makes it even harder to choose. You'll probably find it mundane but we take it seriously. =) That day we decided to deviate and try something different. We had lunch at Cafe Mediterranian .

I had this yummy Morrocan Chicken in buttered rice and side salad. Every bite was heavenly. Ha ha, I did not realize that I was closing my eyes as I enjoyed each bite. This is not the actual picture but it looked something like this. Yummy right?

Lunch for me is not just the meal. For me it means being with friends, it also meant some moments of relaxation, a time to exhale and breathe, a chance to recollect myself. It's my precious sixty-minutes of doing things that I like, no stress, no angry client, no rush report...it's all about me. So what do you think? Let's do lunch? =)