the most important meal of the day

Breakfast, as we've all been informed, is the most important meal of the day. This is convenient for me, as it is also my favorite meal of the day. I wake up for breakfast. When I wake up in the mornings to the sound of three separate alarms, I roll over and bury my head in my pillow and pretend that it's not time to get up... and then... a *thought*!

If I get up... I get to have breakfast :)

Every day when I get to work, I have a cup of coffee, a bowl of cinnamon & spice oatmeal, and then at 10am, I have a mid-morning snack of yogurt (either raspberry or boysenberry). Not only does this help me wake up, and function as a human being, but it also gets me in a happy mood, and familiarizes my stomach with the concept food, so that later in the day I won't be so incredibly hungry that I gorge myself on unnecessary calories.

Don't get me wrong- I love food, and I don't (by any means) consider myself a calorie counter. When I order a mango smoothie, I want the mango smoothie with the raspberry swirls and whipped cream on top- not some half-ass low-fat attempt at a delicious frozen blended treat.

Back to the point- I have a gripe. Let's say, you had lunch yesterday. A turkey sandwich on a sesame bagel with chips and the ever-loved glorious pickle, and a mango smoothie. That's a pretty hearty lunch, complete with a fruity dessert. Since lunch, you finished your day at work, and went directly to your next job, where you worked until about 11pm without having any more food. Finally, you decide, you should eat something, and one of your customers orders a bread pudding. Reminiscent of the soup du jour scene from Dumb & Dumber, you think, "mmm, that sounds good. I'll have that." You order your bread pudding, take 4 bites, and put the to-go container at the back of the counter in the kitchen, and plan to take it with you when your shift is over at 1:30am. After the bar closes, you check out, go home, and realize you forgot the bread pudding. *UGH* It's ok... it's only 5 hours til breakfast time.

The next morning, you arrive at work only to find that the coffee machine is out of order.

OUT OF ORDER?!?!?!! Shouldn't that honestly be a legal reason to let your employees go back home to bed??? Imagine 25 disgruntled employees, cranky and irritable, and quick tempered- ready to resort to hasty physical encounters with each other over inconsequential expense reports, paper clips, and tape dispensers, throwing pencils at each other's eyes, and tripping other employees in the hallway. It's a hostile work environment, and probably a violation with the Human Resources department, if you knowingly force your employees to work in a vulnerable, combative office suite.

Not only am I lacking my daily dose of caffeine, I am also still incredibly hungry from the night before. Solution: Breakfast Sandwich. When I think breakfast, I think of juice, coffee, yogurt, and main breakfast substance, in the form of a sandwich, bagel, cereal, or omelet, etc. Luckily for me, beneath my office exists a Cosi. :)

This is perfect for several reasons:

a) they have coffee AND juice

b) they not only have yogurt, but yogurt PARFAITS

c) they have omelet breakfast sandwiches, bagel sandwiches, muffins, fruit and cereal.

Cosi provides a variety of breakfast choices, and you can actually get a complete breakfast! So tell me, when located in the midst of office buildings with a clientele consisting of mostly business people and employees in the town center, don't you think that it would occur to Cosi management, that not opening until 9am is the most insane, blockheaded, obtuse, frustrating, and the absolute-opposite-of-optimizing-business decision EVER? How the hell am I supposed to function and remain partially pleasant to those around me, without food or coffee??!?!?!!

Plan B: Panera

One of the benefits of your office being in a town center setting, is that usually there are multiple choices for places of satiation. I sluggishly walked to Panera, pouting that I couldn't have my complete breakfast I had envisioned just moments before. Alas, Panera is open!!! Though Panera does not have the selection of fruit, yogurt, or juice, they do have coffee. I ordered a large coffee, and a breakfast sandwich, and realized my peppiness had slightly returned as I could rest assured, that my faith in breakfast establishments had been restored.