Last year at this time I was in Australia, attending my first conference, my mom was still alive, my dad was only dating someone, and I thought I had one year of graduate school left.
Recently, I have had a hankering to add another member to our little family. No, not a baby. A dog. You might think I’m crazy, being that I am already the caretaker for one husband and three cats.
But one look into those beautiful eyes of Mindy (a gentle 3 year old, 40 pound golden retriever mix who likes cats) and I’m completely smitten and ready to sign up for even more hair collecting on the couch, less space on the bed at night, and walks that end with me carrying a bag of crap.
Each night before going to bed, I try to get my my snacks and lunch ready for school the next day. For tomorrow, I have my yogurt and carrots waiting for me in the fridge and a banana, one granola bar, a bottle of water, and a coke sitting out on the counter. It does sound thrilling doesn’t it? Sometimes I even get a little crazy and throw a handful of nuts into a baggie.
Some might wonder why I don’t just bring the whole box of granola bars into school. It is a reasonable idea, as it would save me from having to remember to load the little goodies into my book bag every day. However, there is one problem with that idea. That problem is self-control; I have none. If I were to bring the whole box of granola bars into school it would last maybe 2 days.
Why can’t I just have one? I don’t know. All I know is that when I have that whole box at my disposal I just can’t help myself. It always starts innocently enough with just one, and then suddenly the box is empty, my desk is covered in wrappers, and I just feel so dirty.
Hence, I ration my food to account for my lack of self-control. This does work, except for in the rare case when I have cash at my disposal to slide into the vending machine for one of my standard snacks. And yes, I have on occasion made multiple trips to the vending machine.
Over the years with all this technology that has been developed, why is it that no one has developed a way to make carrots taste like someone good, like sun chips? Seriously! There are apples that taste like grapes (grapples, look for them in your produce department), why not carrots that taste like cheese? Or ham? Or sun chips?
- We have central air conditioning. However, we are refusing to turn it on until it is absolutely necessary. This has resulted in all of us (2 humans, 3 cats) melting into a sweaty mess at night.
- We (okay, mostly me) are seriously considering adopting a dog. This would bring out totals to 2 humans, 3 cats, and 1 dog living in our townhouse.
- This past weekend we signed ourselves up for both a half and a full marathon in the Fall.
