Lunch

I was invited to join my co-workers for lunch. It's been one of the hardest things about my new job. Lack of socialization with co-workers. Today, the ex invited me to join them for Chinese. Right on! I'm in! I have realized that any invitation that is turned down requires a lot of work to "make right" so I was all over this one. We went to the Chinese restaurant down the alley. The experience was horribly disappointing. It was a crazy slam fest, with the four men and one other woman smack-talking each other. My ex, who, I imagine knows me well enough to know I was uncomfortable, would occasionally ask me a bizarrely normal question like, "So, what is your family doing for Thanksgiving?" which would be followed by someone threatening to tell someone else's embarrassing stories from college. Like, X-rated stories?! It was the kind of environment where you try at first to fit in, give some input and then you realize it is not only completely futile because you've got nothing to add to their inside stories....but you don't even want to assimilate to the group. I've been bummed that I haven't been invited to more of these lunches??? Are you kidding me?! It's been a blessing?! Sweet and sour chicken has never tasted so sour.