For the love of the cafeteria

Yes it's strange, but I love a cafeteria. This probably started at the mall in Fayetteville at a very young age going to Morrison's cafe. The options were endless. Fried chicken, mac and cheese, jello cut into cool little blocks (sorry mom you jello in Pyrex bowls was not near as exciting. Don't forget the strawberry shortcake. Anything with cool whip still rocks my world. When I lived in NYC I had a friend who worked in a prominent publishing building not far from where I was in school/working. We met for lunch about once a week and I always hoped she would want to eat in her cafe. It was subsidized by the company and seemed way cheaper than our Cosi (another fav lunch spot) salads and bread. The only thing my cafeteria is lacking that made hers hold a huge spot in my heart was that hers had "by the ounze" froyo. Frozen yogurt people! as much or as little as you wanted. toppings too. Yeah it doesn't take much to make me happy. of my favorite things about nursing school and being in the hospital every day is the cafeteria! This cafeteria very loosely resembles ole Morrison's. There is fried chicken on Wednesdays and cool jello and pudding cups. However there are lots of healthy options including a "by weight" salad bar, baked chips, hummus and taboule wraps, bulk dried fruit, nuts, it's all there! I've always been an avid lunch packer. This is for monetary as well as weight watching reasons. My days in clinical are long. We meet in the cafeteria for pre conference and I get an orange or some (affordable REAL) mixed fruit to supplement my Lara bar. Then it's a long time from 7:30 to noon. During this time I'm almost 100% on my feet and moving. So when lunch comes around I happily indulge in the healthy and affordable lunch options that the cafeteria has to offer me. I've decided this is a well deserved treat for these long stressful days. I have seriously considered taking fellow cafeteria lover friends on a field trip there for lunch one day. I feel I should share the love. : )
To continue with this being the most random post....I feel like being in the hospital in my scrubs I'm with "my people". Another nursing friend has used this term with me before. We'll be out to lunch and she sees nurses in scrubs and says they are her people. In the world of the hospital everyone is walking around in pajama like scrubs, going about their daily business, and according to what they wear you know their job. The doctors in one color, OR nurses matching them, techs in light blue, nursing students in white and teal,etc. It makes it very nice and visually organized, which I must say I enjoy. What if at the bank the vp's wore red ties and the svp's wore blue? ha! However as much as I do love my scrubs and their pseudo cast system, by the end of a day in the hospital, I'm barely through my front door when I am stripping off those scrubs. You start to think about where you have been and what you have done during the hours that you were wearing them. Yuck! Sorry no pictures in this post. I did search google images for pictures of pretty cups of jello in cut glass bowls, but had no luck!