thanks for nothing CSP

today something happened for the first time in a long time: i ate lunch alone. when i first started working i often ate by myself. i didnt mind it at all, and would usually pick up a newspaper. from time to time i would meet a friend who worked downtown, but i didnt worry about it too much. then morgan moved to baltimore and got a job down the street and since then we have eaten together most days. also since then eric started working here, as did ben and bingo. so it is rare these days for me to eat lunch alone. but dont think that this is a cry for sympathy, because i am not complaining. rolling solo i had unlimited options for lunch today, and the world was my oyster (i will be perfectly honest i dont not know what that means and cant think of a possible meaning or origin, but i think i used it properly.)

after much contemplation, i settled for cafe saint paul (CSP). it is kind of boring since it is actually in the lobby of my building, but it has been there for almost 2 years and i hadn't been.

when i entered i was optimistic; the place was bumping. there were 3 or 4 people waiting for their sandwiches and another 3 people in line about to place an order. i got in line and scoped out the menu. i breezed down the menu and wasnt sure what i wanted. then i saw the 'specials' board. this was the daily features, although i think all of the things listed on this list were actually listed elsewhere on the menu. aka they werent actually specials. anyways, i get to the third option on this board: cajun chicken wrap. bingo! no need to worry abotu that anymore, so imy eyes make their way over to the chip stand. baked lays with cheddar and sour cream... combine this with a natucket nectars half and half (more appropriately known as the arnold palmer) and it sounds like a delicious lunch. i order my food and slide to the left, heading towards the register. while waiting, i notice the cajun chicken on the menu. the last 3 words in the description caught my eye: spicy honest mustard. i enjoy h mustard, but i dont like mustard very much. also spicy mustard does not bring me pleasure. fearing the H in the h mustard would be too spicy, i quickly place a request to the sandwich artist asking for her to refrain from applying said condiment on my wrap. she smiles :-)

by this point the pleasure i am already getting is great. it is then i start brainstorming a mental list of websites that i am going to read while eating my wrap at my desk. i pay and head back towards the elevators. i see a bunch of annoying looking old guys entering the third elevator, so i intentionally slow my stride to not make it into their elevator (i am not even sure if they would have waited anyways) when the first elevator door opens and my personal express elevator awaits me.

during the walk to my desk i experience scamperitis. for those who don't know, in this phenomenon, a certain feeling that you have grows inversely proportional to the square of the distance between yourself and the source of this feeling. the most common occurance (from which the name is derived) is when you are headed for the bathroom. you could be 10 miles from your bathroom, and the feeling is one of relief. at 10 miles, you want to be at the bathroom, but it is not a big deal. at 1 mile, the feeling is 100 times strong than it was at 10 miles, but it is still tolerable. as you can see, the feeling grows faster and faster, based only on your location. then inside of a tenth of a mile you start moving your body in an unnatural way to avoid disaster. whether you like it or not, you begin to scamper.

anyways, i am filled with excitement to eat my lunch until the time i open it. dagger. it turns out that cajun chicken wrap is apparently freezing cold chicken salad, in a wrap, sprinkled with cajun spices. i am so let down. i dont like chicken salad (or egg salad, or tuna salad, etc.) i was expecting warm grilled chicken. i give it a shot anyways, and manage to get half of it down. it isnt all together terrible it is just not what i ordered. i google cajun chicken wrap and verify that i am not being unreasonable by expecting my sandwich to not have chicken salad based only on the name. my lunch went from awesome to not awesome so quickly. and i will not be eating at CSP again... atleast i got a blog entry out of it.

and i am thinking that the blame might be on me. its likely that the description says something about chicken salad. but i am certain the 'specials' sign did not... oh well. if you want my advice, if you are in the sandwich industry and are serving a cajun chicken wrap, dont use chicken salad. and if you are using chicken salad for any item, include the name 'salad' somewhere.