Soup Diary 110923

When I first started at my current job, there was a small coffee shop on campus that I would frequent for lunch (and other events like films and poetry readings). It was a friendly, comfortable spot, just one building over from my office, and I generally ordered a cup of soup, which were generally quite good. Due to some campus construction, the operation was eventually moved to another building a bit further away. It's not a huge campus, so I'm not talking miles, but it was slightly less convenient and so my visits became a bit more sporadic, though I continued to enjoy the soup. At some point, a new little snack shop opened in the student union that was even closer than the old coffee shop, and so that became a regular stop. They too offered soup, and usually had two or three choices, which made it an especially attractive option, though on occasion I would still stroll the extra steps to the other place-- it was nice to have such choices, and that meant I could be picky in what I had for lunch. But then the proprietors of the coffee shop complained to the campus administration about unfair competition, and the soup vanished from the snack shop. I have to admit, I took this a little personally and fell out of the habit of going to either spot for lunch. Every now and then, I would have a meeting with someone in the coffee shop, and the soup was still pretty good, but I mostly brown-bagged or skipped lunch altogether. All of which is a lengthy prelude to mentioning that I had lunch at the coffee shop yesterday for the first time in probably two years, and I had the soup: cream of broccoli. It was fine (though it could've been hotter), but nothing to cause me to adjust my habits and make it a regular stop once again. I don't really blame the owners for looking out for their own interests, but I wish I still had all those choices, and it doesn't appear likely that things will go back to the way I liked them best.