I had a temp job last week, as you know if you read my “I’m back!” post. I was working with two other temps: a guy and a girl. On Wednesday, there was a mini-convention on the ground floor, and the regular staff told us they would bring us some of the lunch buffet. When the food was first brought in, we were also instructed to help ourselves to one can of pop each. I went down there, and there was cola, orange and citrus galore, but no diet. The pop selection hadn’t been picked over, either; it had just been delivered. When the staff went downstairs, they told us they’d bring back our portions, and we could eat in the break room.
“What do they have down there?” the girl asked.
“Chicken.”
“Oh. I’m a vegetarian.”
Silence.
“Well, do they have sides?”
“Sure. We’ll get you potato salad and cornbread.”
“Thank you.”
“Nice of them to think that there might be vegetarians here,” said I.
“Well, they can’t think of everything,” said the guy.
“But this is California. And it’s a health fair they’re having. You’d think they’d have considered the possibility that some of the people attending the convention would be veg.”
“Well, in any group, vegetarians are going to be a very small minority. In fact, in many groups, there aren’t any vegetarians.”
“Not in my experience.”
“Or in mine. And there also wasn’t any diet pop. That’s ridiculous.”
“Well, you’re getting a free lunch, whaddaya expect?”
“I know that, but there may be people downstairs who don’t eat chicken and do drink diet. They should have thought of that, especially at a health fair.”
I just didn’t like his attitude, or the implicit attitude of the company. Vegetarians are not some freakish minority, especially, as I said, in California. And diet pop drinkers may actually outnumber regular drinkers, although both are probably overshadowed by water mavens.
No real question here, just wanted to share and hear from others.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
