class warfare
Yesterday I left the house at 5:15am to catch a cab. I brought a sack lunch and a sack breakfast because I'm unwilling to spend money at the cafeteria. I took a cab because I don't want to buy a second car, and there are no buses that run at 5:15am. My plans were to take the cab only to the freeway station, becuase I'm too cheap to take the cab all the way across the bridge - they change you $30. However, a $10 cab fare is worth it if I can catch the 5:55am bus at the freeway.
When leaving my house, there was a guy hanging out outside. There are always guys hanging out, this is urban life, it's no big deal. He bounded up the stairs to the abandoned house across the street, which was unusual because there was no way he was going in that door. Then he stood on the porch and waved: "Have a nice day!" I just lifted my hand - who wants to yell at that hour. I'm still not sure he was making fun, I actually think he was being friendly, in a poor impulse control sort of way. But it was very obvious who had the house, and the money for cab fare, and who did not. And I thought I was scrimping!
Coming in to work all week there has been a buffet outside my door. It's not for me, its for the italians who are visiting and monopolizing the conference room. Every morning the cafeteria folks lay out the fruit tray, with melon and berries, the muffins, the variety of coffee and tea, the bagels and butter and cream cheese. The buffet sits there wafting from 7:30am to about 10:30am when the italians show up to ignore it. Then comes lunch at about 11am, more cafeteria folks whisking away the unwanted breakfast and bringing in roast beast, hot vegetables, rolls, and alcohol in a bucketful of ice. The lunch does not get ignored.
None of us in the CSG hallway will stoop to scavenge from this buffet, despite the wafting, despite the fact that it's one foot away from our tightly knit desks. We have integrity. We take our tupperware to the microwave and return, often sliding by the italians next to the buffet table. We are the hosts here, hosting them, there is no reason for them to be uncomfortable from our not joining in on the feast. And they're not. There's a conspicuous lack of eye contact, a burying of face into cell phone or else back to the meeting room.
I suppose the point of this is: I could wish them a nice lunch, and it would be their turn to wonder if I was kidding.