How to sum up Friday's big lunch-date interview? Words can't even begin to describe the fun of it all. It's kind of like on SportsCenter where they show about five or six highlights and then ask the viewer to pick the best highlight out of them all. There were just so many.

Before I begin, I have to say that when I was called about the lunch-date/interview, I expected that I'd be taken out to a nice lunch with most of the staff and we'd sit and talk and chew the fat. We'd talk about the company, the job, their expectations and my expectations and then, hopefully, I'd get a job offer. Or I'd at least get some sort of indication that I'd get one soon. For an expectation, I don't think that it was so out of line. That's what usually happens when some company decides to take you out to lunch while still in the hiring process. Or so I hear. While nothing like this has happened to me, I know it's happened to other people and that's what they said the point of a lunch/interview was. Throw in the fact that they kind of said they'd like to take me out to lunch because they felt bad about stringing me along for so long, and I had kind of great expectations.

Silly, stupid me.

Now, to the highlights:

-The person who called me to set up the appointment, somebody who I had already met and said several times he wanted to hire me, disappeared. And I mean disappeared. Nobody in the office knew where he was and he wasn't answering his cell phone.

-Another person who I was supposed to go out to lunch with, somebody with whom I hadn't met before, came by to say he had forgotten that he already had a meeting and couldn't make it.

-The person who first contacted me about the job, the person who was my contact there and told me what a great addition to the staff I'd be, and the person who would by my boss, handed in her resignation on Tuesday and just walked out of the office.

-Which left one person who was around to take me out to lunch, the Vice President. Right in the middle of the interview, he realized he had a conference call with the CEO and didn't have time to continue. So he asked me if I could come back an hour later. So smack dab in the middle of the interview, I went off to Stacey's bookstore for a half an hour to kill time. Then I went back into the office, kicked it in a conference room, and read the paper for another half-an-hour, waiting for the conference call to be over.

-Being told in the last interview, the one after the hour wait, that there still working on funding, that the company started off with 72 employees and was now down to 12, and that they were thinking that the job was only going to be contractual and part-time because, well, see above.

As for lunch? You know how I was expecting a nice, expensive fancy meal? I got the Soup Factory. Yep, a soup place. Which is all the more funnier when you add in the fact I was told by at least several people that under no circumstances was I to order soup during the lunch, what with all the slurping and spilling that could go on.

The best part of the lunch was how because I didn't order soup (I got a small salad- the sandwiches sucked, which meant I basically didn't eat until I got home) I got to the front of the line pretty quickly, much faster than the Vice President did. That led to a couple of awkward seconds as I'm standing at the cash register where the person is asking me if that is all and I didn't know what to do. When the Vice President finally caught up to me, there was a couple awkward seconds where I was about to reach for my wallet and he stared at me, finally reaching for his wallet to pay for the whole thing. After we ordered, we went back up to the office and ate at the guys desk.

Let's just say to that there's nothing more uncomfortable than trying to have an interview while eating lunch. Especially when the person you're interviewing with, a nebbishly Jewish guy in his mid 40's who wreaked of being in way over his head, really had no idea what he was going to say. We'd be sitting there just shooting it, that is when someone could think of something to say, and then there'd be an awkward pause as he bit into his sandwhich. Or he'd ask me a question just as I'd take a bite and I'd either have to pause before speaking or put my hand over my mouth to respond. That was when I wasn't trying to quickly clean up the little bits of crumbs that I'd dropped on his desk and hoping he didn't notice I was getting dressing all over his nice desk.

And there I thought that the biggest problem I'd face during the interview was whether or not to extend my hand in greeting, what with me being still kind of contagious (definite "Seinfeld"/"Curb Your Enthusiasm" type moment). That and trying to not to get too distracted by the way hot receptionist.

And the best part of the whole thing? If I'm offered it, I have no choice but to take it.