The Panera Experience

Since I live alone I find myself having trouble preparing food for just me most of the time. I usually end up at Panera bread for meals since the food is a little healthier than most fast food places and the atmosphere makes me feel like eating there might make me smarter - maybe thats because I am usually reading there but whatever.

Well, since I am at Panera 3-4 times a week I have come to recognize the people, mostly teenagers, that work there and they have begun to recognize me - when they ask for your name for every order and your name is Annemarie they begin to catch on. It's a great feeling when Tyler gives me my food without having to look at the screen to see what I am getting because he knows what my usual is (You Pick Two with Broccoli Chedder soup and Smokehouse Turkey panini). Most of the time I am not too embarassed to be there because the food is so good and I am usually getting it to go. There are some days when I am able to sit down and enjoy my food with a book and those are the days when sitting alone really begins to take it's toll. In the end its all good since in a little more than 4 months time I will be back in NJ and getting ready to get married and I will never be alone again... hmmm

For those of you who are Office Space fans I should let you know that there is one employee at Panera that reminds me of Brian at Chatchkies (I have no idea how to spell that) - the kid who is annoyingly energetic and tells the guys that they must have "A case of the Mondays". He is usually standing by the door welcoming people and helping them out. He even has blonde hair and is a similar height and build to the guy in the movie. I was glad to see that his name was David and not Brian becuase that might have been too much to handle so I have been able to keep my composure around him most of the time. They ran out of Dr. Pepper today and he was standing next to the machine when I realized that only seltzer was coming out of the fountain and came to my rescue. He then let me know as he was letting the air bubbles out of the tank that Dr. Pepper was his favorite drink as well and if I had needed Pepsi he would not have helped me as fast. So hard to not laugh at him. You have to wonder if he has seen that movie and tries to be Brian because that would be both sad and admirable.

Tomorrow is pericope and that means 2 hours of my supervisor giving her opinion no matter who wants to hear it. woohoo.