Where is my lunch?

I took an early lunch today to walk in to town and make Visa-payment-attempt-#3. Long story that deserves a separate blog entry.

I walked back to the LAC looking forward to my lemon-pepper chicken and veggie leftovers, waiting for me in the fridge. Sadly, my Tupperware lunch was nowhere to be found in the LAC kitchen. Huh? It’s a small fridge and a small office – I just put it in there yesterday and no one mentioned anything about a fridge cleaning, normally there isn’t much in there to begin with. Hungrily, I looked through the fridge three times, moving ice cube trays, lifting up the communal coffee cream for no reason. My lunch was not there. I found Amalia (the “housekeeper” for the office) and asked if by chance she’d cleaned out the fridge or seen it? She remembered my dish because it stood out – the Tupperware with the bright blue cover. She hadn’t seen it.

Sad and hungry, I walked with my head down back to the Dungeon. Okay, I know I’m being over dramatic, but I was frustrated. I’d just walked in to town and could have easily picked up something to eat. The office is so small I was surprised and sad that someone would just take my food! This happened a couple times at CEB, but usually boxed food, like Freezer lean cuisines would go missing, or others would use my creamer and I never minded (as long as there was some next to me and it wasn’t used in obnoxious amounts). I plan to bring my lunch regularly – do I need to label Tupperware so people don’t assume it’s communal? Should I wrap plastic bags around it and make it difficult to get to? Did someone just mistake it as leftovers up-for-grabs? I thought about leaving a note on the fridge with a sad face, just to let people know in case it was a mistake, otherwise to instill a bit of guilt in whoever left me as a lunchless intern in the basement. I wonder what is the protocol here - would a note be weird? Again, it’s a really small office, I didn’t want to ruffle feathers or start rumors about a kitchen bandit. So I pouted at my desk for the remaining twenty minutes till 2pm, and eating the entire bag of Endearmints I had stashed in my desk drawer.

Not that big of a deal, admittedly, I’m just adjusting to life with very limited private space, and it’s a change for me. Everything at Puccini House is open, shared, and communal, from bathrooms to dishes, and this type of public environment is a big difference from my studio apartment at Stanford. You need to be respectful of the common spaces (i.e. clean up after yourself!) and trust others here. Outside Puccini House, I’ve been warned and worried about personal safety in the city. All these stories about muggings make me feel suspicious toward many people I see in the street and I hate that, I don’t want to bring that suspicion and discomfort in to the office. Okay, enough about the lunch already. Hopefully whoever ate it was hungry and enjoyed it. I’ll just label it next time, so there is clarity and no confusion.