I am not proud of my story, but it is true...
It is difficult to be a person that eats well in an office with some people who don't eat well. You feel like the odd duck, especially since you used to be on the other side.
McDonald's offers a chance every so often to purchase 49¢ hamburgers and 59¢ cheeseburgers. I did not realize my new co-workers had a competition to see who could eat the most cheeseburgers.
I wanted to compete even as they were tossing out numbers beyond where I would have been back in my heyday. The number 10 was the benchmark from last time. I've never eaten 10 or 8 or even 6 before.
I wanted to participate, but I decided early on to limit myself to 3. The number 3 was large to me now, but was dwarfed by my co-workers. I felt good with 3 and I hadn't been to McDonald's in a while.
The staggering numbers were even more impressive since I thought there was a limit of 5 per customer. Apparently, at the location where we went, their approach was "if you want to buy them, we will sell them to you."
My hamburgers were a little dry, not enough ketchup and mustard and way too much onion. They did feel heavy at 3, so I imagine 10 plus cheese would have been a strain. Of the three other guys in the competition, two finished at 10 and one went a bit further, perhaps aided by peer pressure; his final total: 11 cheeseburgers, a medium fry, and two Cokes. I just hope he didn't have dinner.
I felt good to be a part of the fun, even though they told me that given my total, they would laugh at me behind my back. Then again, they told me this to my face. So I was included. That felt good; it felt better doing so at a price my body could handle.