Lunch IN Tempe

My usual lunch break almost always usually consists of the following: 1) eat lunch at my desk while browsing news and sports articles on the Internet (about 20 minutes); followed by 2) a walk south on Mill Avenue from US Airways Corporate Headquarters to Mill Avenue and 7^th street and back (about 30 minutes); and ultimately pouring myself a cup of coffee from the galley (dorky airline talk for kitchen) in order to jump start the second half of the day.  Today, however, I did something completely different.  Once my stomach began to growl, I grabbed my brown paper bag out of the fridge and headed off to Mill Ave in search for a new and out-of-the-ordinary place to eat.  I was looking for somewhere relaxing with tables and chairs I could use to sit down and eat at.  After milling around Mill Avenue for about fifteen minutes (pun intended) I found exactly what I was looking for.  East of the ASU Engineering School / Bank of America Brickyard building, right off of Mill Ave, there is a ground level water fountain.  And no more than twenty yards away from the fountain is a nice little coffee shop (which I never knew existed) with tables outside for its customers to use.  Despite not being a customer (yet), I sat at one of their tables and began to enjoy my lunch.  Not to sound overly enthusiastic about a short break from work, but this lunch break turned out to be one of best of recent memory.  Instead of being tucked away in my cubicle eating lunch alone, I was out in the world enjoying a break with the rest of Tempe, Arizona.  I watched a young couple have coffee and cigarettes with their dog relaxing nearby in the sun.  I watched a boy admire the fountain while his parents supervised.  I even got to watch a woman check her blackberry from one of the fountain's benches, only to walk away after experiencing a light misting from the fountain's streams of water.

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While I'm on the subject of water, it should be noted that I didn't forget about the water "live with" and assignment.  In fact, I've been thinking about it regularly since class.  Working in Tempe, one of the few (only?) locations in the Valley with an natural water source, makes remembering to think about water much easier.  Today, however, it was the fountain that caught my attention.  I've always been a fan of water fountains.  Strange, I know, but from Six Flags Great Adventure to Disney World's Epcot Center to Westgate in Glendale, I've always enjoyed the sight of water being shot to great heights only to come gently splashing down.  Maybe it has something do with with admiring water's fluid movements and subtle power; or maybe it's because my hometown is a half hour drive away from the shore; or maybe it's because that same hometown is called Twin Rivers.  For one reason or another I've always enjoyed the sight of water and the manmade fountains that it often plays in.

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After finishing my meal and getting my fill of ''people watching,'' I figured it was time to return to work.  Keeping in the spirit of having a completely different lunch break, I decided to walk into the coffee shop that was kind enough to offer the tables that made this lunch possible.  Not surprisingly, it was a quaint little coffee and gelato shop that not only serves half-decent joe, but also offers discounts to Mill Avenue area employees (US Airways included!).

So what did I gain from this experience?  I learned that lunch break can act not only a time to refuel physically (i.e. eat food), but also as a time to refuel mentally.  I returned to the office recharged and ready to take on the second half of the day.  Not only was I ready to return to work, but I also wanted to return to work.