Meetings May Now Have a Different Meaning

I used to tire of meetings. Marines, especially senior officers such as Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels love to hold meetings, sometimes for the sole purpose of hearing themselves talk; and, other times, just to fill up their calendar. Seriously. My biggest pet peeve is when someone takes the floor and takes half an hour to say something that should have taken no more than five minutes.

My boss, at the prompting of his two Captains, decided to hold a meeting Thursday morning at Cafe du Monde in the French Market. Cafe du Monde is known for its coffee and beignets, and serves little else. Their Cafe Au Lait is better than anything you'd get at Starbucks and the beignets sinfully delicious. Beignets are square pieces of dough fried and dusted with powdered sugar. They taste a lot like a funnel cake.

After an hour-and-a-half of enjoying the atmosphere and delicacies, we finally got down to business. The actual meeting lasted only about thirty minutes, but it was the most enjoyable thirty-minute-meeting I've attended.