Picnic People

I'm suspicious of the smell of someone else's lunch in an office. The odor is hard to identify. Usually smells burnt. I'm always surprised if I see the source of the smell because it's never the food I thought it was going to be. Perhaps there is something about the smell of an office that gets into microwaveable food. The whole thing turns my stomach. However, I must admit that when people have given me some of their homemade lunch to try, I have been pleasantly surprised! Once I smelled the generic burnt odor and it turned out to be skinless chicken with delicious herbs, and the chicken wasn't dry (the problem I have had with cooking chicken).

I guess its just weird seeing homemade food out of its normal kitchen setting and popping up in the office kitchen. The one exception to this is the homemade party platter. You expect to see some kind of platter in the office.

I'm just not organized enough to bring food with me anywhere. This is a personal failing. Not that I'm that anxious to bring party platters or lunch, but I would like to be the person who could produce a picnic from a basket. That would be nice. Victorian. In 2012, "picnics" are usually pot-luck affairs with covered dishes spread out on a portable table with fold-out legs. The dishes look like criminals in a line-up, each one not happy to be stared out, judged.

I want to be the kind of person who can make a picnic with nice breakable dishes and glasses, wine, silverware. Under a tree, private, not for everyone's eyes. I don't know what it takes to be a picnic person. Is it a skill you are born with or can it be taught?