Photo Credit: Mike Mozart, Creative Commons.
…that spans decades.
On Tuesday I went to the grocery store.
I was minding my own business grabbing the ingredients on my list for dinner when out of the blue, it hit me like a freight train…love that is. I was seeing hearts, pink hearts!
I thought that the spell had been broken, I was over her, it had been so long.
But there, at the end of the pasta aisle, as I rounded the corner, I almost ran right into her. Debbie that is.
“What are you doing here?!”
Usually tucked in near the bread section across from the tea, she decided to move right back into my line of sight. That Debbie, she knows that normally my defenses are up in the bread aisle. It’s there that I am usually too involved in picking out a new tea flavor to look over my shoulder at her.
She’s a devious one…
Knowing how hard I try walking the narrow path of healthy, clean eating she just had to get me when my defenses were low, especially this week coming down off of a bad cold.
I just couldn’t get away, I was under attack, there, all alone, at the end of aisle 5, just me and the cream filled heart cakes that come out for Valentine’s Day. My favorites!
With one look it was over, she had all the encouragement she needed. Faster than lightning could strike a box landed in my cart. Fortunately I was able to act fast enough to thwart off the 2nd and 3rd box that were aimed right for me and getting ready to launch…phew!
I looked around, did anyone see that? “Debbie!” I whispered emphatically– “How could you??”
And as I scooted around the corner, up aisle 6 I began to rationalize….this thing.
Little Debbie’s and I go way back. My mother used to buy the Christmas trees and hearts at the holidays. Then, on occasion, the Zebra cakes and oatmeal pies when there was no holiday to celebrate and she didn’t feel like baking. As children of the 80’s, my sisters and I would race to the pantry closet, clamoring for a cake or 2 after school. Heaven forbid if you were the one to find the empty box.
In the summer we got to take them on our family camping trips, and then when I went to college, my roommates and I would eat them by the boxes on movie marathon weekends. Such “sweet” memories.
So not only do those cakes pull at my taste buds, but they also pull at my heart strings too!
No matter how old I get, and how bad I know she is for me I have this very soft spot in my heart for the redhead in the white and blue trimmed hat.
Little Debbie desperately wants a place back in my life, but I just can’t do it, I can’t.
I have tried rationalizing with her, telling her that at 44 the pounds just don’t come off as easily as they used to. I have even begged her to get with the times and use more healthful ingredients– she swears that she is going to do away with all that food coloring.
And with all of the health risks associated with poor food choices I tell her that I am never going to allow her to enter into my cart again!
Did I tell you she’s not a very good listener?
Oh Debbie, I just can’t resist this game that we play (sigh).
But, like everything, I tell myself in the checkout line, it’s all about moderation and balance, and we all have our vices, right? (Please agree with me here.)
And as I drive in the driveway, after inhaling 2 on the way home, I figure if I don’t move her back in permanently and resume our best friends status, maybe, just maybe we can manage to get along, on occasion. Until her next round of shenanigans…
So I get out of the car feeling totally bad about my Little Debbie meltdown, yet again. I go for the groceries in the back seat, I shake my head, as my eyes look to the sky, and I think–well, maybe I’ll just give the rest to the kids…or not. 😉
Hope you had a great Valentine’s Day! Here’s to the real loves of my life–Tyler, Jacob and Sam–and a little black and white springer named Trixie too!
Love to all of my readers!
Kate
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