Yesterday, at work, while I ate peanut m&ms, it dawned on me that I can’t remember a day, in recent history, in which I didn’t eat chocolate.
I don’t really consider myself a chocoholic. I mean, I like chocolate. I like it a lot. But a chocolate addict? Surely not. Surely I could go one day without eating chocolate. And on that day with no chocolate, not miss it. Never entertain a thought of, “boy, I sure would like a Snickers.”
Growing up, I remember my mom ALWAYS having a chocolate stash in her room. I mean a SERIOUS stash. Usually it was a 5 pound bag of m&ms, hershey’s kisses, or hershey’s miniatures. I did partake on occasion (sorry, mom), but I always found it a little odd that she kept chocolate in her bedroom. A LOT of it. ALL the time.
And then I grew up. My true appreciation for chocolate developed during my junior year at college – I had a particularly stressful class load, and I had moved into a new place with all new roommates. Five of them. That’s right 6 girls in one apartment … if that’s not a recipe for disaster, I don’t know what is. Anyway, on really stressful nights, I would make a chocolate run – for two or three candy bars and a brownie mix. And not just any brownie mix – it had to be a 9×13 brownie mix. I would eat one candy bar on the way home. I would eat one while the brownies were baking. And then I would eat half a pan of brownies. (Making a 9×13 ensured that I got what I needed – you don’t just make brownies when you live with 5 other women and NOT expect to share.)
Thankfully, those days are behind me. I mean, the days where I eat half a pan of brownies in a frenzied state where I just NEED to get CHOCOLATE inside of me, no matter how sick to my stomach it might be making me. I do still have times when I really need some chocolate, but usually one candy bar will do the trick.
So – a chocoholic? Surely not. But …. I did start my day out with a giant junior mint … (I’m serious about it’s size, it’s a two-bite mint.) And then I had some hot cocoa at work. No chocolate at lunch … but 3 oreos when I got home. And, well, it’s perfectly normal to have a chocolate stash. Isn’t it?
I’m not an addict. I can quit any time I want …