The Cafeteria Lady

Ok, so this is a bit further from my usual style of blogging - but I think I'm in love with the Cafeteria Lady. Yeah, she works downstairs on the till in the University Lunch Hall. Why? She's got an aurora about her. I think I must see her about three lunchtimes a week, and every time, she makes me smile. Sometimes when we all sit down to lunch with the usual clan - the BNP group (that is, the Beal National Party; more on that later....) they will bicker and moan about her happiness and smiles. They will mock her outgoing and chilled out nature. Never shall I.

Today, there was pandemonium inside the usually subdued zone of the Canteen. Too much money in the tills! Three women all fiddling with £20 notes and bags of two pound coins, carrying it all back and forth from the tills to the chasmic depths of what must be the control centre and headquarters of the dinnerladies; behind the scenes, through the big white door where student meals are cooked by the finest of University Chefs. Okay, so I'm getting a little carried away. A little, maybe. Love is like that. Anyway. Where was I? Yeah, so all this pandemonium, and in the middle of it all, The Cafeteria Lady just laughs in the most adorable way - I'm a sucker for a beautifully phrased laugh... and everything is okay. What a stunning moment. It is moments like that that certain types prevail over others. Types of people - so you've got your typical workaholic "icantbearsedwiththistoday" type of being; I can't stand them. What's wrong with something funny to spice up your life a little bit? Clearly to some people, life is all about work. Well, here's to you - in twenty years, you'll either be dead, burnt out, or a very successful career orientated person - actually, of the latter words, the addition of the first two negatives, culminates in the third word. You can be a dead man walking, right? I've met and seen a few... not such a pretty sight.  I'm afraid workaholics can end up being shells of the people they were. If you know someone like that - and you're at Uni, you NEED to help them. Chill, relax, do your work, but don't forget that life is about moments.

I think The Foo Fighters summed it up for me with 'Times Like These'. Dave Grohl sings of moments that mean a great deal to him. Well it is little moments like the Cafeteria Lady's laugh that mean that much to me. She's always like that. For instance, ages ago, just as the new term had started, I was buying my usual at the cafe: a highly nutritious and carbonic diet of beans, bacon, sausages, pizza (if its the decent pepperoni one...) and chips. Yes, its healthy. Anyway, I was just heading over to the fair lady on the till when she asked me "how are you today!?" in her usual innocent and honest tone; and I replied "very well thanks, my holiday was wonderful... how was your time off?" to which she smiled, postively beaming and said "I got married this holiday!" - I was overcome with happiness, not sadness. This lovely lady has found someone who treats her amazingly and hopefully recognises the same amazing features of her personality that I had...Awesome! My holiday pales by comparison, I said, and she returned that every holiday is good for you! It really just goes to show that amazing people live  in-between us, in our society. People of such selflessness that they almost make us all look terribly greedy, ugly and self-absorbed - it is only when you are talking to such people can you truly realise how much of a destructive and selfish person you can sometimes be - and just for once, you might feel like taking a day off.

P.S - If you see the Lady in question; and it's not the dark haired one... Smile!