my company's buying lunch today

when i heard this yesterday, i thought it was a joke. then, i thought it was a rumour. when it was confirmed, i kept asking "what for." hey, whatever reason is, free lunch is always a nice gesture, especially when it's so rare.

i used to work for a company that treated us lunches for any reason they could think of: hip restaurant, full course, 2-hour break. once we all went to see a movie across the street during the working hour and all paid for. there were two christmas parties: one was for employees' kids, hosted by a full-gear santa clause. the other was an black tie event for employees and their spouses. there was a annual spring themed party too. not to mention the monthly birthday ice cream cake, the most exquisite kind in town. and in mid of some hot summer days, a colorfully decorated ice cart would roll up the floor going "ding ding ding" distributing free treats...

oh, those were good old days... since then, i was gone. so was the company -- the 30-billion-dollar operation was bought up by a major international firm.

belonging to the same industry, my company now has a christmas party and a spring party annually, no spouse allowed in either. i don't complain my salary now although i did with the old company. i don't complain about having no free lunch or birthday cake. from a chinese point of view, you don't call company with a 65-billion-dollar asset in any way cheap. it's thrifty. it's lean. it's hungry. and it's always looking for smaller fish to eat, one merger after another. and now it's talking about buying my old company!

this morning, somebody came and said, the lunch food will arrive around 12 noon from quiznos. now, the whole lunch thing started to sound like a joke again. on top of "what for", i kept asking "why? q-u-i-z-n-o-s??". i only eat meat and vegies. free lunch from quiznos cannot be my unch after all.