Yesterday I took the opportunity to skip out of work for a few hours to "tour" some new spots on campus. I don't work on Campus.
It scares the crap out of me that if certain people read enough of my posts, they might be able to figure out where I am. This wouldn't bother me for the most part, but there are a select few who I'd love it if I never saw or heard from them ever again. Some who WOULD go to such lengths.
Any who, tour bus and 30 others, we went to campus. 1.5 hours was not enough time to do even what was planned. It should've been an all-day event. We cut short so we could go eat. Rather, either eat or go to the library. I chose food. I've seen the library.
We were excited at the choices the cafeteria there had to offer, but there was this underlying experience and opinions that I was suppressing, trying to forget. It's been a while since I've been exposed to true, incompetent and nasty mass-produced college food. Sodexo, Chartwells and those types. Putting things in the food that makes sure you shit it all out in case someone prepares ALL those eggs wrong. Yes. Or in my instance, some guy with no gloves on, putting a barely-a-burger on the grill for less than 2 minutes and then not putting anything I asked on to it. Fine.
I was still excited though, it looked like a good burger. But I forgot my phone, I couldn't use my card because, I couldn't load money on to it. I had mushrooms, cheese and this burger. Fries too. So I had to pay full price. But let's back up.
I got a small cup of Minute Maid "strawberry kiwi" I thought it might be good. It game out lime green. It screamed "chemicals and food coloring." I mean, LIME GREEN. Fine. I get in line, and there's a kid in front of me, shorts, sandals. He was buying a drink. He swiped his card, he did not have enough. He walked away to "get the rest." The unbelievably inept cashier freaked, had no idea how to handle the situation. She called over another cashier, who apparently knew what to do... Which was tell her she could do nothing until he got the rest. But he walked away.
I had a nice good sigh. Fucking hell. 29 cents, and he had walked away. The cashier could do (supposedly) absolutely nothing until he came back with the rest. But he'd walked away. Fucker. I was on a time crunch. Finally, I took out a dollar, one of the few I had left. I paid the rest. She yelled to him he was all set. I didn't even see him or receive thanks. I realized later it was probably his MO. He was a pro. I had gotten taken. Why would he have walked away? What the fuck man. Fine.
I didn't have my card for the discount, nor did I have enough cash. My bare burger, fries, and SMALL cup of chemicals came out to $9.48. Holy shit. This better be fucking good. It was not. The burger was OK. Only OK. It had nothing but cheese and mushrooms on it. I asked for pickles, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. None of that.
I wolfed it down, the fries were average but better than I've had, they were crispy. Thank god. It was actually a decent burger in retrospect, but the price is what soured it. Opening the cap of the chemicals, I realized I wasn't going to drink it. I sipped a bit but tossed the rest. I bitched to my coworker the tragedy of what was happening here. The raping of college students on this horrible food. Yet we were touring brand new facilities where this food was such trash. They're raping these students for a $10 burger and fries. Granted I didn't have a discount which I would've gotten with a card. But still. Why not bump up the quality of food? It was utter trash, and my standards are pretty low. I would've considered it decent had it been, say, 5 or 6. But not ten bucks. Fuck that. Fuck this.
I made him laugh bitching about the highway robbery, the hidden tragedy happening on campus while the school spends money on show and tell, rather than the innards. They know students will eat shit. I did. Before and now. I was fooled, again. Choices are deceiving. Thankfully, I got half a paper-y burrito from another coworker who wasn't going to eat the other half. It was better.
Today, I get paid, so I loaded my card up to go eat in the less-tragic cafe downstairs. This morning, I remember nearly forgetting my ID card. But I saw it and thought "that would've been tragic." But I grabbed it. Now, loading it up for breakfast. I cannot find it. Nor do I have any more cash in my wallet. So now I, am the one who needs to figure out a way to get myself something to eat on someone else's dime.
How the tides change quickly. Fine. Here's to a better, existent lunch.