lunch at the toyota dealership (m)

Friday.  Day after Thanksgiving.  Wake up with a food hangover--first time in over a year.  Skip breakfast because I'm punishing myself for yesterday.

Take the Highlander in for a regular service check-up.  Now that H is driving this car, there's more incentive to stay on top of these things.  Arrive with a tote bag full of diversions for me--Blackberry, iPad, book.  The service attendant tells me to make myself comfortable in the lounge.  He estimates two hours for the service call.

Station myself at a table with two chairs, one to put my stuff on and one to sit in.  Start by cleaning my purse.  Feel virtuous as I get a lot of sales receipts, gum wrappers, and dead lipstick tubes out of there.

My stomach is growling.  I look up and see a snack bar--pastries, bagels, cream cheese.  Can't go there.  I get up and get a hot green tea.  An hour later, I truly am hungry.  There's a box of Lipton Cup a Soups.  Calorie count is low but 540 grams of sodium is a lot for me.  I'll swell up like a float at the Macy's parade. The hot chocolate looks good but no calorie information.

And then, across from the snack station, over by the recycling, I see my lunch.  Apples, bananas and bottled water.  Why did they hide the good stuff there?  I take a small apple and a small banana and a bottle of water.  I feel even more virtuous.

I saunter over to the "living room"--leather chairs and the television with Kathy Lee and Hoda on and spot a People Magazine with Kate and William on the cover.  Just as I'm in pig heaven eating my banana, drinking my water, and reading about Kate's family, the attendant comes over and tells me I'm all set to leave.

Aww.  I was just getting comfortable.