The dreaded Cafeteria Standalone.
Blue plastic tray wobbling in both hands carrying a big rolling glass of iced tea and a heavy ceramic plate loaded with steaming roast beef, wet mashed potatoes, and bland baby carrots, you exit the cafeteria line and glance at the full crowd in front of you.
It’s the high school cafeteria, the workplace lunchroom, or the food court at the mall. Everybody is laughing, at you maybe, while you stand and stare out at the kaleidoscopic sea of smiling faces.
As the seconds tick by you feel more and more out of place.
Maybe you quickly glance around the room while pretending to get ketchup. Maybe you walk in a couple different directions so you aren’t clogging up the lanes or looking too obvious. Or maybe you just get really anxious and wonder if you’re going to have to sit by yourself.
But just as you’re beginning to lose hope you eventually you see them.
It’s your friends in the distance.
And they’re waving.
AWESOME!
23 Comments
September 16, 2009 at 1:13 am
No kidding! You said it sister!
August 13, 2010 at 6:15 am
*brother
September 16, 2009 at 1:27 am
So incredibly true! This is definitely one of my favorites.
September 16, 2009 at 1:34 am
Huzzah! Love this feeling.
September 16, 2009 at 5:47 am
We always sit in the same spot, so that’s never a problem. We don’t tend to buy our lunches either, given that the cafeteria food has a bit of a… reputation. I’m sure some people can relate to this one though! :)
September 16, 2009 at 8:47 am
What an awesome, awesome feeling. Never thought I’d see this up here. Way to go.
http://ctcmr.com
September 16, 2009 at 9:35 am
I have seen this in school happen a lot.
September 16, 2009 at 11:43 am
Salvation!
September 16, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Oh this one is PERFECT for this time of year … !!
September 16, 2009 at 12:57 pm
So true! Love this one!
September 16, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I swear you have a hidden camera following me: I can’t get over how often these awesome things are ridiculously applicable to me. This one happened to me today. And it was AWESOME.
September 16, 2009 at 3:43 pm
omg soo trueee!
September 16, 2009 at 5:28 pm
In high school we all had our clique zones laid out in the cafeteria. But college was different; I can totally relate to this post. Especially if you’re all on different schedules, you’re in an unfamiliar cafeteria, you’re all loaded up and boom! Who is that waving at you? Hey, it’s your roomie/ friend from class/sorority sister, etc. Wonderful feeling!
September 17, 2009 at 4:39 am
Oh the unimaginable joy and relief of spotting your friends after standing around looking like a lost kid! It just cannot be described in mere words.
September 17, 2009 at 5:02 am
Fortunately, this feelin did not happen so often to me! But you described it very well :-)
September 17, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Awesome things like this are the reason I read this site…not “all the food that comes from a cow” or “ducks.”
September 18, 2009 at 10:57 am
mmmm…..cow…..
September 18, 2009 at 3:04 am
This completely happened to me today, college cafeteria. :D
September 20, 2009 at 3:28 pm
omg, AWESOME.
October 7, 2009 at 5:49 pm
When I eat I don’t want people bothering me actually. So sitting alone when I’m amongst a bunch of strangers is absolutely fine.
December 12, 2009 at 1:34 am
oh, oh, OH. haunting the ketchup/dessert island was the only way to get a really good view of who was in the dining hall, but you had to walk the entire food gauntlet to get there, and the food rarely justified such effort on its own.
April 16, 2010 at 8:51 am
I laughed so hard that tears welled up in my eyes!
July 16, 2010 at 11:15 am
What’s a “cafeteria”? Sorry if that sounds dumb. I’ve only heard of them in American fiction.