The Meeting

I was sitting in a meeting yesterday. These meetings never apply to me for some reason. I get a little bored and instead of sleeping, I observe the going ons! Don’t get me wrong…I don’t mind meetings as long as they aren’t simply held to absorb a certain amount of contractual time by making random announcements and doing unnecessary tasks transparently invented to hold me captive so the “higher ups” get their money’s worth from me. I’m certain that many people feel this way but it’s just the way it is so it really matters very little that I feel exactly like the rest of the world feels in this regard…even the “higher ups” I assume.

One lady walked in with a half gallon of ice cream. Judging from the cookies in the middle of the table, I guessed that she must’ve been making some punch or something. I moved on to something more entertaining at the time…now that I think about it, I can’t remember what distracted me…likely a noise or a “hang in there” kitten poster on the wall or something. Some time had passed when I became aware of the meeting again. I noticed the lady with the half-gallon of ice cream. She had it in front of her and was eating out of it with a tablespoon. I interrupted the meeting and asked, “Are you really eating a half gallon of ice cream?”…She responded by telling me that she needed something cold on her throat and it had been on sale at the Price Chopper on the way. Everyone looked at me and laughed. I wasn’t sure what they were laughing at. Had I been the only one who was curious? It was clear to me that she would have to finish the entire half-gallon during this meeting because I was pretty sure she didn’t have a freezer in her purse. I suppose a half-gallon is doable, though I’ve never done it in front of 25 people! Good for her!

The meeting got back on track to its holding pattern of un-captivating. The boss was addressing one of the guys across the table from me. He kept clicking and staring at his blackberry while he spoke back to her. I thought, “Balzy! Even I am hiding my phone under the table to text and play tetris! He was doing it right in front of her face.”…I tuned into the conversation and from what I could assess, he was looking at dates in his calendar that she was asking him about. This made a little more sense. People don’t tend to have that much audacity! …I glanced over to my colleague eating the ice cream…yep…still going with only a small puddle of creamy condensation on the table underneath the melting, warm cardboard container.

The meeting drew to a close and I had cleared 4 levels of tetris. Not bad actually considering that my trackball was getting worn out. That reminded me…stop at AT&T on the way home and have that fixed. I had another meeting next week and had just downloaded space invaders.