Bollywood, Spog, and Giant Bathtubs

Hello folks - Shannon here. As you may have gathered from the title of this post, lunchclub today (like most days) was filled with fascinating conversation. You know, I'm not so sure that this small, yet consistent gathering of rather common folks couldn't just solve some of our world's problems if given the opportunity. Perhaps this blog is the first step to really get our valuable thoughts out there into the larger society.

Claire & Lynn joined us briefly at the beginning as they shared with us some of Lynn's recent roommate woes. Apparently a former psychotic roommate of hers is now working to become a counselor. A few of us took issue with that. It was about this time that Ryan excitedly mentioned there was some fun-shaped pasta in his soup. We're not quite sure about Ryan.

The conversation soon turned to my own mail (not male) drama as of late. For some reason, I'm not receiving all of my mail, particularly several of my monthly bills. Apparently a collection agency has an incorrect address for me (though I'm not behind in any of my bills), but my husband & I can't seem to find someone who is actually willing to correct our address and solve the problem. The rest of the group seemed genuinely concerned had some very helpful tips for me. Ryan suggested I shorten my address, Jorge thought perhaps my identity has been stolen, and Liz decided that maybe it was actually me that was stealing someone else's identity. Stephen & Jorge both thought I should really get my credit report checked ASAP, and I'm pretty sure Deasy is going to have the whole thing solved before I get home tonight - she asked some very insightful questions. Oliver listened intently, then ran back to his office. What do you think - should I be nervous?

Somehow we moved on to the political world, discussing the recent elections in Israel & Venezuela. Stephen offered some great insight into current world leaders, as well as recapping a poll for us that ranked all of our American Presidents by popularity. Ryan soon posed the question, "What exactly does America have to offer the rest of the world?" Liz & Deasy decided celebrities are probably our biggest asset, so Jorge & Ryan thought perhaps we could start trading celebrities for oil. See what I mean? Solving the world's problems, right here at lunch club!

Hollywood brought us to Bollywood, and we tried to decipher where exactly the name came from. Deasy thought maybe it came from it's home city of Bombay (which apparently changed names recently - I must have missed that), which Stephen later confirmed for us through his awesome research skills. Somehow we jumped from Bollywood to space, as Stephen told us about a recent satellite crash somewhere in the universe. Apparently there are some problems with the excess of debris floating around now, to which I suggested the use of a giant magnet. I got laughed at. Come on guys - what's wrong with that? Liz also educated us a bit on "space junk" as we discussed the possibility of shipping off our garbage towards the sun so it will simply disintegrate. Jorge decided that was a bad idea as it would like produce too much "spog" (get it? smog - but in space? It was funny, ok?).

We closed out the lunch-time with a brief discussion on former presidents (I think this was still related to Stephen's poll) and some of the more obscure ones we never really learned much about. I mentioned the only thing I knew about President Taft was the fact that he was a very large man and once got stuck in a bathtub. Stephen informed us all that he actually had to have a custom tub made just for him because of his size. Jorge decided that must have been when the reflecting pool was built.

History, politics, space science (ok - maybe it's called rocket science?), identity theft - it's all in a day's work here in our little nondescript office building. Well, actually it happens during off-hours. Just think what we accomplish during the rest of the day!

You have just died of dysentery!

Jorge here…

In resumption of the lunch club blog, I have decided to combine a couple of days’ worth to make it more interesting.

Monday

Talk started out about the Grammys. Consensus was that the performances were better than usual. I personally didn’t watch the Grammys (except for the Radiohead bit on YouTube), but I will take the groups word for it. We also deduced that the girl Chris Brown beat up was Rhianna. Seriously, what are the odds that he would be arrested and she would be in a “car accident” on the same day?

The drama of the Grammys then turned into drama in the office (or at least former employees who were very dramatic). I won’t go into details to protect the innocent. ;) We also decided there are varying degrees of dramaticness (I know it is not a word). The ultimate is, of course, Drama Queen. But there are those not so widely known degrees of drama personnel like Drama Peasant, Drama Serf, Drama Jester, and Shannon’s desire to be known as Drama Princess.

Ryan proceeded to tell of his lack of drama over the weekend. Apparently, a certain big city airport in the South does not mind if you were to drive right up to the control tower and hang out for a while. Ryan, Liz, and Liz’s husband drove around the airport trying to capture video of planes landing (without seeing one for an hour and a half). I indicated the planes were halted do to crazies wandering around the tarmac. Ryan thought it was pretty eerie that anyone could walk up and touch the control tower without any security stopping them.

Forgive me for not being good at transitions, but somehow the conversation steered into the Oregon Trail. Stephen then injected the thought about what it would be like if Oregon Trail similarities were included in sports related games. “Your Wide Received has just died from dysentery!” Another childhood game that was brought was MASH (the fortune-telling game children would play to determine your future house, spouse, status in life, etc.). Shannon and Lynn came to life in trying to explain the game to Ryan, who seemed to have interest in making the game make sense. He has been watching too much Lost.

Tuesday

Oliver attended the Grammys and told us the stories thereof. One of the highlights he mentioned was the Russian cab driver who appeared to have just stepped off the plane and straight into the cab. I will call him Vladdie the Cabbie since Oliver can’t remember his name. Vladdie the Cabbie has an obsession with AC/DC and Metallica…which was all he talked about. Oliver also was within spittin’ distance of Paris Hilton at some point in the night.

More Grammy talked ensued with which I have to say I blacked out because I don’t remember any of it…except that Claire and Liz were very eager to dish on the latest gossip and clothing choices of some performers (M.I.A.). Thanks to Stephen, also our multimedia resource, for providing the picture.

Ok, here is another transition fail. We eventually ended up on remembering past bad gifts some of us received from relatives. Shannon educated us on the department store that is Gottschalks. Most of us never heard of Gottschalks (which we made Shannon spell it several times…successfully I might add).

There you have it. Now I am going to go ice the joints in my fingers.

Hey! Over Here! Remember Us?!

So let's cut to the chase. We didn't intend to go for so long without posting. It just kind of... happened. Which is a shame because dang have we had some good discussions in the past six months! But we all agreed that we could extend a little more effort to bring back the blogging. So in that spirit, let me get everyone caught up on personnel changes in the past six months.

Out: Ann, Monroe, & Evans all bid us adieu and moved on to bigger and better things. Monroe & Evans are all happy and married - not to each other, mind you - and Ann shipped off to the great state of Texas for her new gig. Also out: any previously mentioned interns. We loved them all. But they only stick around for a semester. We have three new ones now, which we can introduce at a later date.

Birthed: Joy, Stephen's little bundle of baby, made her arrival in October. No other lunch club babies on the horizon.

Recap of Current Lunch Clubbers Participants:

Jorge: Lunch club president and papa to precious Phoenix, who is coming up on his first birthday!

Ryan: Keeps us up to date on technology, new music, and all things Iceland. He's married to Danae, who doesn't work here, but does get the occasional shout-out.

Stephen: The table's sports guru and dad to the aforementioned new baby Joy.

Oliver: Still really loves fruit, and this weekend he is going to the Grammys. Jeaaaaaalous.

Lynn: Find her sitting at the right hand of President Jorge, most often with a cup of cheese dip in front of her.

Claire: Lynn's partner in cheese-dip-related crime. Always hilariously mishears stuff that happens at the table.

Earl: Still our honorary lunch club dad. We like to remind him often of his advanced age.

Shannon: Lunch club's daughter of the Midwest who finally joined the rest of us in watching "The Office!" Woooo!

Andres: One of our more casual attenders, and the knower of all music trivia answers. Ever. He's dad to Gabriel (also about to turn one) and Isabella.

Marie: Mom of two and one very funny lady. She keeps chocolate candy at her desk, so she gets lots of visitors.

Deasy: Faithfully attends lunch club on days when she's here... lucky duck works here part time and spends the other days with her two kiddos.

Jennifer: Mom to little Marie (not to be confused with Lunch Club Marie) and maker of unintentionally funny statements.

W: Company leader who pops his head in from time to time.

Webster: Called such for his outrageously extravagant vocabulary, with which he impresses us when he stops by to tell one of his crazy stories.

And I'm Liz. Everyone claims they're going to help write this thing, but let's be honest. You'll probably be reading a lot from me..


Now that we've got all that settled, how about a summary of everything we talked about over the past six months? Yes? You're in luck. I just created this awesome Wordle. You can click to view it larger.

Here's hoping we see each other again sooner than six months from now!

Cheers,

Liz