Friday, September 23, 2005

Free association lunch

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, everyone!
In the spirit of renewed enthusiasm for saving money, I can report that I have managed not to buy lunch at all this week! There was one day when I had a work lunch and one when I was too busy to eat, but I managed to cover the other 3 days with sandwiches from home, so yay for me.
For some reason, today this made me think about the brown-bag lunches that I used to take to school as a kid. Up til about the 4th grade, I had one of those classic red plaid metal lunchboxes, which had a tendency to pop open when I'd be in the middle of crossing the street. Then when lunchboxes became uncool, my mother would pack my lunch in the actual brown paper bags. But even that had potential for embarrassment, as she would write my name on the bag and draw a little cartoon of my face to distinguish it from my father and sister's lunches. Then there was the time when she sent me to school with a tupperware container full of tuna without mayonnaise, and one of the school aides complained that it smelled too fishy. This was in first grade, when I was assigned to sit at the "slow eaters" table, whose other residents included a kid named Richard who would blow bubbles in his milk, and another boy named Scott, always known as the "grossest kid in class" because he would chew up baseball cards and swallow them.
Yeah, I have come a long way, baby...

1 comment:

Caitlin said...

first of all...I own that lunchbox now. HA. I bought it for $10 at that huge brimfield antiques thingy (ok, I'll fess...I also bought the star wars: empire strikes back lunch box the same day). But seriously. The red plaid is pretty snazzy.

second of all...wasn't *everything* a source of embarrasment when we were that age? ;)

Congrats on the lunches from home! woohoo