Feeling Petty

Went out to lunch today to celebrate a friend's last day in the office. It was a fun lunch, but at the end, of course someone suggested (well, insisted) we split the bill evenly, which came to $15 apiece. I'd ordered one of the cheapest things on the menu, a $6 sandwich, no drink. I hate it when groups do that. It always seems so unfair. It makes me feel, as a person with a low-end salary, that I have to carry the weight of people earning more, who are accustomed to ordering more expensive food. I spoke up, but the group wasn't too responsive, so in the end I put in $10 and let it go. I also hate having to speak up, because everyone glares at me like I'm a total cheapskate. Which I probably am. I just don't like spending a lot of money on food - to me, it's not worth it - and something in me rebels at paying for my coworkers' lunches. So my choices are: skip the farewell lunch, suck it up and pay, or reveal my cheapskateness, none of which is too attractive.

Gah, there are bigger fish to fry. It's so petty that I'm even thinking about this when there are people starving, drowning, or stranded on rooftops in New Orleans. The devastation there is horrible. Given the scale of the human tragedy, I'm sure the loss of life for animals, pets and wildlife, is extreme as well. I wish the evacuation efforts had been better organized - seems like a lot of people didn't realize they should leave until it was too late. And obviously trains and buses out of the city should have been running for free. It seems like the people who got out were the ones who had access to good information and realized how bad the storm would be, who owned cars, and who had friends and relatives in the area who offered them housing. I really feel for the people who weren't lucky enough to have those things.