----------------------------
The
Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter
15/ Food.
Part
3 (Previous post contain the previous chapters.)
----------------------------
When I worked at the big corporate
office in the new Platinum Leed Certified Building our group was in the
retouching room, which was a small dark room in the back corner of the photo
studio. We re-touched photos and took out all the imperfections.
We’d sit, the five of us, at our
computers removing blemishes and dust, scratches and anything the art director
requested be removed. Images for the newest campaigns would come through our
office and after eight hours we’d release them all shined up, we would talk all
day as we worked. At one point one of the guys decided to hang up a sweet roll
on his bulletin board. He thought it was significant to watch because the
expiration date had long passed when it came out of the machine. He wanted to
see how long it would take before it changed. I thought the whole thing was
gross.
I told him he needed to throw it
away. He would just laugh at me. I mentioned I would get “revenge” somehow.
He’d laugh some more. (I’m not really the revenge type.)
The next day the hijinks began. It
started right before lunch. I put a second vending machine snack on his
bulletin board. Every time he left the office I’d add another one. At noon I
went to the store and bought a variety of boxes of Little Debbie snacks--and
pins.
By the end of the day, there were
about six snacks dangling from the bulletin board and he couldn’t shake the
smile from his face. He kept asking who was doing it, suspecting me, but I
didn’t tell. I’d find a way to be on the phone or not hear the question.
I stayed late that day. Everyone
left and I busted out bags of Little Debbie snacks. It took quite a while but I
created about eight rows and twelve columns of snacks on the bulletin board.
There was quite a reaction in the
morning. He laughed and laughed and laughed some more. He offered a snack to
everyone who came in. He told anyone who would listen about the dumb Danish
that started it. And he put a post-it on it labeled “don’t eat.” He rewarded my
efforts by removing the Danish to his desk drawer, but he would not throw it
away.
People loved it so much that my
Christmas gift was wrapped snacks pinned to the wall. The chaos began again.
----------------------------
Food
has a way of bringing people together; food and hijinks even more so. I’ve
always enjoyed that family gatherings began with food and menu planning and
when we gathered, we’d pray. They seemed to go hand in hand.
