Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce...

I hate lunch. Well, not so much lunch itself, but trying to figure out what to eat for lunch. As you know, I'm not much of a cook. If it comes in a box or from the freezer, I am good to go. So, if leftovers are an option, then I can go that route. I can always take a can of soup and nuke it, but that gets real old, real fast. If no leftovers are to be had, then the dreaded decision must be made. Where do I eat today?

There definitely are a lot of restaurant choices in San Diego, but not so much in the area where I work. It's pretty much all industrial buildings so the nearest fast food joints are a bit of a jaunt. And keep in mind, I only get 30 minutes for lunch so I've got to choose wisely.

My usual choice is crappy ass McDonald's. I call it that because every other time I go there, it is crappy. It's the closest place so I go there more than I would like. Its only redeeming quality is the super nice drive thru workers. Not once have they messed up my order and they are always friendly. It's the cooks I've got a problem with. Dry burgers, over done filet-o-fish, under cooked fries. Yuk.

One time the boss and I thought that the KFC/Taco Bell combo sounded good. Huge mistake. The first nightmare is their parking lot, which is always bottlenecked. Even if I wanted to go in to order, there's no where to park and the drive thru line has the only available parking spaces blocked. So, drive thru it is. I order, pay, drive back to work. Only then do I discover that my boss' food is not in the bag! $%&$%&!!
I shovel my food, call them to complain and drive back to get her order. When I explain about the missing burrito, they tell me to pull ahead. As I'm driving up, I see a bag hanging out the window. What? It's my food. Not an apology, nothing. Just a burrito. Chick didn't even have the decency to say she was sorry. That's it! I'm never going there again.

Why I went to KFC in the first place is beyond me. CeCe and I went there, a long ass time ago. We wanted some chicken (duh) special they had going on and they were out of what we wanted, offered to substitute with something else. Sure, no problem. Figured that they would adjust the cost accordingly. Nope. Well, what's a couple bucks, right? So, to make everything all better, I order, for dessert, one of those yummy chocolate parfaits. You know, heaven in a cup. That smooth whip creamy sort of topping, the to die for chocolate and the crunchy graham cracker crust. My mouth was watering all the way home. As we unpacked the to go bags, I realized. THEY FORGOT MY HEAVEN!

And KFC isn't just right around the corner. It involves freeways, major roads and another 45 minutes of my time. The parfait is just not worth that much effort. I know, I should have at least called and complained. Why? So they could tell me to come back through the drive up and they would give me one. Or maybe, if I was lucky, they would send me a friggin coupon? The chicken just didn't taste the same that night. For dessert, I had to settle for stale cookies. What am I saying? There are never stale cookies in our house. Gone in two days, tops.

Back home, and this time I am for sure referring to good ol' WC, there are no chain restaurants. None, not a one. I do remember, though, at one time, there was a Taco Johns, tucked into the Kum N Go. It didn't last long. I don't know why but I sure do miss the potato oles with extra sour cream. My point is this. No chain restaurants, no drive thrus to muck up your order back home. When you get a to go order from the Twist, you can almost bet the farm that your order is correct, exactly how you want it, plus loads of extra napkins and condiments. I shouldn't have mentioned the Twist. Now I am dying, no joke, dying, for a Twistburger. Hey, Carolyn! I need an order to go. All the way to San Diego!

Yesterday, my coworker offered to make a Burger King run for us. Worked for me, since all I had was that dreaded can of chicken noodle soup to nuke. And the commercials for their new nuggets! Well, it took very little convincing. Bonus was he had a coupon and offered to pay. Yeah for me! I made sure to stress the sauce choices. Honey mustard AND sweet and sour. I'm sorry, but nuggets suck without sauce, don't you think?

I should have known. My luck with fast food restaurants totally sucks. Sure, the nuggets were there. All 20 of them. But the sauce. Oh my heck, where was the sauce? Suddenly those golden brown, bite sized nuggets had lost all of their appeal. I asked the coworker. He showed me the receipt. Right there, in black and white, were the sauces. On the order, people! Working the drive thru is not rocket science! I know. I've been there. AAGGHH!!

Moral of the story. Take the extra 15 seconds, hold the line up a bit and check the contents of your bag. Now why don't I take my own dang advice? From now on, from this day forward, that is exactly what I am going to do.

I think I'm gonna go to Wienerschnitzel tomorrow. They specialize in hot dogs. I just hope it doesn't look like this...