We were going out to a nice restaurant. . in Fargo, ND. (Yes, THAT Fargo, but they hate it when you quote the movie to them.)
I was spending the summer in Fargo converting a large hospital from Microsoft Exchange to Novell GroupWise. We had an entire group of Novell consultants. I was the migration expert, but we also had a directory guy, and a project manager, and a couple of guys who I never did figure out their exact roles.
We’d fly in Sunday night, put in four ten-hour days and then fly home Thursday night, spend the weekend with our families and then do the whole thing again the next week. The hours were tough, but the money was good.
When you are working and traveling that much, there’s not time to do much else. . .except eat. I discovered my fellow consultants liked to eat. I mean REALLY liked to eat. They spent time scouring the restaurant guides and took great pride in tracking down the best local restaurants. The fact that we were all on expense accounts meant that no restaurant was off limits.
And Fargo had a surprising number of nice restaurants. After a couple of weeks as we were finishing up for the day they said,
Rodney, it’s your turn to pick a restaurant.
Food has never been a big deal for me.
I don’t care where we go.
No, really. You pick.
Whatever you guys want is fine by me.
No. You HAVE to pick.
They were pretty adamant about it and made it clear we were not going to eat until I picked a restaurant. I looked around the group, but they were united in their decision.
Okay, guys. . . Burger King.
After a moment of stunned silence,
YOU don’t get to pick anymore!
Ironically, I actually would have been perfectly content with BK. It shared a parking lot with our hotel.
Photo credit: cityoffargo.com
Rodney Bliss is a blogger, author and IT Manager. He’s been working in the computer field longer than he can remember. He lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah with his lovely wife and 13 children. . .and you can occasionally find him at the local Burger King.