The Saga of the Boxed Lunches

Tuesday, the first day of my three days of deps, during the morning break, this office lady comes in with a bag and hands it to the attorney sitting there and says, Here are your lunches. After she left, I said, "Maybe she should check the other conference rooms around here. Are you sure that's for us? " He laughed and said, "No, I don't want to point it out if it's not for us. I want lunch." When it was finally lunch time, we all agreed to meet back in an hour, then the two attorneys started discussing the witnesses and the rest of the afternoon. I sort of shuffled papers, not wanting to bring up the free lunches, but I wanted my lunch. In all the years I've been a court reporter, I've had attorneys buy me lunch, but I've never had anyone order lunch in like that. Anyway, I finally left, and I didn't get a lunch. When I got back I asked the witness how the lunch was and he said really good.

The next day, I knew they were ordering fewer lunches because half the attorneys went to the barbeque place across the street the day before. So not only did I not get a lunch, they probably threw a few away. Anyway, after lunch, I came back and one of my attorneys said, Oh, did you get a lunch today? I had the turkey sandwich and it was really good.

So today I vowed I was going to get a lunch, dammit. You don't even understand. I happen to secretly like airplane food. This was like really FANCY, expensive airplane food. Gourmet airplane food, if you will. Our job got out at 1:00 but I knew they had delivered more lunches than the day before because I saw them. I figured, Dignity be damned, I am never going to see these people again after today. I am getting a lunch. Well, I did get a lunch. I agonized (inside, not out where all the attorneys would see me) over which one to take. I even forgot to pick up the exhibits after the job, which court reporters are usually anal about. Luckily one of the attorneys noticed and I hadn't left yet because I was busy choosing which lunch to take. I finally picked the Mediterranean Wrap because it sounded good and it wasn't something I'd pick at a restaurant. Man. The wrap kind of sucked. Maybe it really sucked but I ate half because I was so excited and wanted it to be great. I don't know. The cookie was great, and the chips were Tim's Cascade (duh) and even the salad was pretty good. But after all the build-up, I have to say, I should have gone with the Chicken Ranch.