Last night, I had a nice dinner of pasta with meatballs, garlic bread, and green beans. After doing the dishes, I topped off my dinner with a reasonbly-sized slice of apple pie. It was 7:15PM and I was pretty full. All should have been good in my world.
For years and years, after finishing dinner, I would head straight upstairs to brush and floss. Lately, though, it's been harder to do that. It's not because I'm turning my back on proper dental care. No, it's because I'm having a harder time heading to bed without first having my potato chip fix.
I love potato chips. I don't usually eat them for lunch, though. I prefer to eat them standing up, in the kitchen, between 8PM and 9PM, straight out of the bag. That's where I found myself again last night. I turned on the little TV next to the sink, tuned into the Rangers - Devils game, and opened up a bag of sour cream and cheddar chips -- my absolute favorite. This wasn't a snack size bag; those are a waste of time. Instead, I grabbed the 10 ounce family size. That's my go-to bag. I like it because it's big enough to be satisfying while being too big to get through in a single effort. That makes me feel good because it convinces me that I've exercised restraint.
So, there I stood, taking out one chip after another and plopping them in my mouth. After about 2 minutes, I was full. But, I couldn't stop. Oh, no. After all, once you have all that orange stuff on your fingers, you might as well keep on going, right? After another 2 minutes, I took a brief rest, looking inside the bag to see how much progress I'd made. Based on what I saw left inside, I figured I had another minute or two to go to reach my goal of finishing half the bag. So, I kept on plugging along. Finally, I was done. Well, sort of done. You see, I have this OCD thing with my chips in that, before I put the bag away for good, I need to wash my hands. Then, after my hands are clean, I reach into the bag one last time and pull out a single chip between my thumb and my pointer finger. I eat that last chip, inspect the guilty fingers to make sure that they don't need to be washed again (they never do), and then seal up the bag. Then, I put the bag back in the pantry and vow not to repeat the exercise the next night. I completed my ritual and put the bag back on the shelf.
This nighttime potato chip eating is a horrible habit, one that I need to change. I know I'm blessed with high metabolism so no one can tell just by looking at me that I'm a potato chip addict. But, I know my secret and it doesn't feel good.
I've told myself that I'm going to be strong tonight. But, I can't really trust myself to make the right decision. Since Jay has soccer practice from 6:30PM - 8PM, I've decided to drive him there, hang out, and hold off on dinner until I get home. That may be the only way I'll be able to skip the tempation of the chip bag this evening. Yes, I'll be hungry and irritable while I'm waiting to drive Jay home. Oh, well. What else is new?
This is where the magic happens.
