Work Lunch Club

Today I went to the first meeting of the Campus Compadres where the philosophy is that some of these work meetings might be a lot more fun if only we didn't have do the meeting stuff. The idea is to have a standing lunch meeting every other Friday for anyone who can make it. This way you get to see people around campus who you don't work with, or don't work with anymore, and you get to find out all kinds of fascinating things about other people's jobs. And lunches.

I thought it was the perfect opportunity to invite my sister and some faculty and staff I used to work with in Zoology. My sister couldn't make it to this first meeting, since it was the busiest day of the year at her office (where today is the biggest deadline of the year). One faculty member also RSVP'd that he already did lunch with an old friend every Friday, so wouldn't ever be making it. From everyone else I heard nothing.

Still, there were plenty of interesting folks, and we went around the room introducing ourselves, which was much more fun than when the same thing happens at meetings, because everyone was being silly. The organizer said he felt like he was throwing himself a birthday party, wondering if anyone would show up at first. One person was talking about some work issue she was thinking about while taking her shower this morning, and someone else snorted, "Too much information!" As if knowing that someone was naked in the bathroom was creeping her out. Several of my favorite silly people from meetings were there.

We got three big tables full of people, so I think this is an idea that's going to stick.