One of the downsides to living in a major metropolitan area is the tourist industry. While tourists inject some much-needed moolah into the local economy, their presence — at least in large numbers — is not always a welcome sight. This is especially true when tour buses full of ‘em make pit stops in central business districts at lunchtime.

Having an insane craving for a burger — which hadn’t been sated for two weeks — I decided to make the two-and-a-half-block walk to Fuddrucker’s on Connecticut Avenue. I considered going to Five Guys in Dupont, but that’s a much longer walk from my office and I don’t like making the trip unless I have another reason to go, like visiting my bank to make a deposit or some other errand of inconvenience. And true, there are sandwich shops and other places within spitting distance of my office that sell burgers, but their quality is hit and miss. With the limited time I had, Fudd’s was the place to go with the caveat that if the line to order ended at the door, I’d get something elsewhere.

I approached the door and saw no line at the ordering counter; SWEET! My order was taken and paid for within 30 seconds; AWESOME! Then I turned and saw them — the school group; D’OH!

As far as tourist groups go, student groups are my least favorite. They tend to be the loudest and most disorganized from my experience. And the management at Fudd’s was little help, they seemed rather disorganized about the whole affair. It made me wonder whether Fudd’s was expecting them to show at all.

I’ve encountered school groups at this particular Fudd’s before, but usually in the evening when it’s not terribly busy. Until today, I’ve never seen a tour group fill the place to capacity during the weekday lunch rush.

Despite perceived mishandling of the group’s orders, I still got my order in a reasonable amount of time, but then came the part where I’m supposed to pile on my fixings. Half the kids were crowded at the toppings bar, making the process of piling on lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles into a cross between the circus and an Olympic event. Never mind the chaos at the condiment area, where an even bigger crowd gathered. Fortunately, I found the one sane woman trying to keep her group manageable who allowed me to access the condiment bar for the one squeeze each of ketchup and mustard I wanted on my burger.

To keep what was left of my sanity, I found the one corner of the restaurant with a table that was practically hidden from view of the tour group. Unfortunately, the loudspeaker was right above me, so I had to stick a fry in each ear to prevent going deaf from the constant announcements that someone’s order was ready.

My fries were seasoned; I now have the spiciest earlobes in town. If only I was into having them licked.

My team mates and I decided to trot down to Potbelly Sandwich Works for lunch today. I wasn’t really in the mood for a sammich, but fortunately the chain rolled out salads last week, finally catching up with their competition in that department. I’ve tried salads from Subway, Quiznos (I do enjoy their chopped salads.) and Au Bon Pain, so I was curious to see how Potbelly’s stacked up.

Of the four new salads Potbelly offers, I opted for the Chicken Salad Salad. This was basically their chicken salad sammich with fancier lettuce (romaine), grape tomatoes, and the delightful addition of dried cranberries. I asked for the Potbelly Vinaigrette dressing, which I thought was a little creamy for a vinaigrette (I’m a balsamic vinaigrette person, so I thought it slightly strange.), but no less tasty. I washed the salad down with a bottle of Cricket Cola, an unusual concoction of green tea, real kola nut and pure cane sugar. I have a very hard time finding this soda anywhere but Potbelly, so I make it a point to get one whenever I go. (Though I could order it online, but then that might spoil it for me.)

And hey, if I had to blog about my lunch, at least it wasn’t about a grilled cheese sammich. That became a blogging cliché years ago.

There’s been a rash of bad news lately. The hurricane has been the bulk of it, but amongst my friends here in town, a new tragedy arose.

I learned this morning that someone, somewhere within our circle of friends and acquaintances, committed suicide. A mutual friend of ours was kinda, sorta seeing this person romantically. It wasn’t until the mate and I went to lunch that I learned who it was. I was immediately shocked — I knew him too.

We’d only met once; a group of us went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when it opened in July. Without realizing who the other was, we both went to pick up our movie tickets from the automated kiosks in the theatre. When we figured we were part of the same group, we introduced ourselves to each other and joined everyone else in the restaurant next door.

That was our one personal interaction outside of cyberspace. We’d been following each other’s LiveJournals for a while and we chatted once or twice online.

He was a decent guy, at least from what I knew of him, and he will be missed.