nyc is unkind to the decision-making-challenged.

I have been staring at my computer screen for I'd say about 15 minutes now. The reason? I can't decide what I want for lunch. I have a natural inability to make these kinds of decisions, so it's not that it's surprising. It's that it keeps getting worse.

Back in Boston, we had a cafeteria in our company's building. The food sucked and was completely over-priced, but usually my biggest decision was "do I want fries or onion rings." (Coincidentally, this was also the most exciting decision, because it meant we had an option other than fries, which was very, very exciting.)

Other days, when I'd go out to lunch, it was a little harder. Barb and I would clamor into the car, and hem and haw over where to go, hoping we'd come up with an idea before the light turned green. On special occasions, one of us would be craving something, and say something like "I want honey mustard. Let's go to Friendly's!" But in the majority of cases, I'd just yell out "Go left!" or "Go right!" and we'd pick an option from that part of town, narrowing it down only as we drove past our options, saying "I guess not Papa Gino's...not Johnny Rockets." But even then, it was HARD. I never knew what I wanted, and that was with about 10 or 12 strong lunch options to choose from.

Now imagine that I have about 10 or 12 HUNDRED lunch options to choose from. Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Afghan, Indian, Japanese, pizza, sandwiches, bagels, and on and on and on. And even if I narrow it down to, say, pizza, I then have to decide which of the 47 nearby pizza shops I want my slices from: the Italian place, the Greek place, the Kosher place, the place with seating or without, the place across the street or 3 blocks away, the one with the free soda or the one with extra cheese. I end up so completely overwhelmed that instead of choosing ANY of them to silence and satiate the screaming hunger from my stomach, I sit here staring at the walls.

In traditional Barb's-car-like style, I usually just wander out the door, and turn left, or right, or go straight, and eventually say "oh. I guess I'll go here. again. or for the first time," which is really only the beginning. Because then I have to deal with picking something from the menu...