.JPG)
This baby comes pretty close to the radiaton spreading contraption we have here at work.
I like taking my lunch at 1pm. Being here for several years, I found out its easier to get work done around noon when everyone's out to lunch and you don't have to deal with lines waiting to use the microwave.
There are some politics involved when it comes to heating up your food . For starters, people tend to hate you when you have to microwave something that takes more than 5 minutes. Some employees have no shame as they stand there greeting you as you hold your lunch in your hand and you watch the timer going 4:59, 4:58...These are the same people that add an additional 2 minutes once the microwave time is over to ensure that their food is fully nuked. The way you deal with this is taking your time responding to their e-mail inquiries.
Another issue one has to deal with is waiting on "the line." If you decide to take your lunch at noon, and you see that three people are ahead of you waiting to heat up their meals, you can average that its going to take 10-15 minutes till you're able to starting enjoying yesterday's leftovers (in my case, I had to wait 10 minutes for two Smart Ones Chicken and Fettucine and Ravioli something or other which took 4 1/2 minutes apiece). One reason for avoiding the line is having to stay in a room with someone you don't want to be with. Apart from discussing what they're heating up and making some comment about some puppy that wishes to be adopted posted on the bulletin board, there isn't much to say to that person if you spend 8 hours of your working day avoiding them in the first place.
People have tried beating the line by running to the microwave 10 minutes before their lunch hour, so by the time 12 noon strikes, they have their meal ready. Unfortunately for them, others have caught on to this and now you find lines forming aroud a quarter to noon. Some people try to avoid the line altogether by arriving on the line and leaving their food as a place holder. Some of us who are devious may be inclined to hide the person's food or scrape some of the gunk that sticks to the top of the microwave and sprinkle these horrid flakes on top of their meal. There's a reason why people say never leave your food unattended.
Sometimes, there are those akward moments when the microwave says "DONE" but the person whose food it belongs to, is nowhere to be found. In cases likes these, you have to do what you would do in a laundrymat. If you need a dryer, you take the clothes out and put your own clothes in. You deal with the person who is agitated at someone touching their food at a later time.
One thing you recognize is alot of employees are into the frozen food. I rarely touch the stuff (the Pepperidge Farms Chicken Pot Pies are an exception) since they're so high in sodium and if you have something that is labeled spaghetti and meatballs, you know you're getting more of the spaghetti and less of the latter.
I'm suprised people even use the microwave we have here. There's so much crap lining the inner walls, you can scrape it off and make some disgusting meal out of it. Seeing that there's so few options when it comes to eating out or even the cafeteria for that matter, people such as myself are willing to take our chances.
