Lunch
Matt Seinberg

I state here and now that my favourite meal is lunch, whether alone or with a friend. You decide when you want it, and how to have it. It falls after breakfast, and replaces brunch if you are so inclined.

The other meal it can replace is a "linner," which is in between lunch and dinner or a combination of the two, depending on how the timing of your day is going.

Brunch usually is around 11ish, and linner can be 4ish. For those of you who love a good meal no matter what time of day, you can now have five meals at different places if you are so inclined.

With the plethora of fast food restaurants, local Chinese and Italian take out places and sit down dining places around; I am never at a loss for anywhere to go.

This past week, I met an old high school classmate for lunch that I hadn’t seen since 1975. Holy cow, has it been that long? The only reason that it happened was by pure chance.

I’ve mentioned my friend Steve, (the hairy beast) previously, and he’s still friends with Meryl. They went out for something like a minute in high school, even though they were in different schools. Through Steve, I found Meryl on Facebook, and friended her. I got to see a current picture, and didn’t think much of it.

A few months ago, at work, a woman strolls past me. I think to myself that looks like Meryl. I wasn’t sure. When my co-worker was finished, I asked him what that woman’s name was, and he said Meryl. I was right!

When I got home from work, I sent Meryl a message on Facebook, asking if she had been in the store that day. She sent a message back, saying she had and asking why I didn’t say hello. We went back and forth like this for a few weeks, and finally nailed down a day to have lunch.

This week we finally got together, and time flew by. I usually take half an hour for lunch, but this turned out to be an hour and half. We went to a local Subway, where I had my favourite sandwich, the $5 Foot Long Spicy Italian hero.

We spent the entire time talking about our families, what we have done since high school, what we are doing now. It turns out that Meryl recently lost her job, and was waiting to hear about a new one that I hope she gets. Unemployment sucks.

Imagine trying to cover 30 years in 90 minutes. It’s very hard, if not impossible to say the least. I’m sure there are questions we both wanted to ask, but forgot, in the rush of time speeding by us.

Lunch with a regular friend is much more relaxed. There’s no pressure to cover any amount of time, or cover years of what’s been going on. With any luck, you only have to talk about the last few weeks, not years.

I just got off the phone with my friend Dan, who I haven’t seen in at least a year. We’ve known each other for over twenty years, and though time goes by, we know all we have to do is pick up the phone, and all that time is gone.

I did yell at him though for not returning two previous calls, and told him if I had left a message, that would have been the last one. It would have been up to him to make the next call. He works two jobs, at least 60-70 hours a week, and where he fits in eating, sleeping and having time with his family is beyond me.

I hope that we’ll have lunch, soon. The funny thing is that Dan said that he had planned to call me today, but I beat him to it. Had he called me earlier in the day, we could have had lunch.

I love having a good lunch! So email me, and I’ll let you take me out to lunch sometime.