On the Road Again

I wrote the following while on the bus to my second vacation in Vermont this summer. Different family, different location. Same bus stop.

On the bus from Boston to Vermont. Takes as long as it does to get to NYC. We left at 8 am, due to arrive at 12:15. I'm meeting my friends for lunch.

I ate breakfast around 6:30, so I knew that six hours would be a long time to wait to eat again. I was so good. I packed a container of almonds and dried cranberries, planning to eat them at 10:00. Which I did. And drank water from my water bottle, such a health-conscious girl am I.

Around 10:45, the bus driver announced that we'd be taking a 15 minutes break. There was a McDonald's, a Subway sandwich shop, and a Chinese restaurant. I was so good. I decided I'd go to Subway and get a nice little container of yogurt for 99 cents. I like the yogurt at Subway, because it's not sweetened with that disgusting artificial sweetener crap.

I walked in the door and was greeted by a display of every Hostess and Little Debbie snack cake you could imagine. Turns out it was a convenience store. Tucked away in the corner was the Subway. I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, somehow yogurt was the furthest thing from my mind.

I looked left and right, and circled the snack cake display two times. God was testing me. What did I want? A donut? A pack of donuts? A Ho Ho? I saw my favorite dessert from another life, a Little Debbie oatmeal creme snack cake. It had gone up in price from 25 cents to 35 cents. I touched the package. I held it. I read the calorie amount. 330. NO ! I would not give the devil my soul. I would not give in. I moved away as if I had been burned by Little Debbie's evil smile.
My mind went blank. I had forgotten what I had gone in there for. Somehow I found myself in front of the coffee urns.

I don't drink coffee; I'm a tea aficionado. I'll drink coffee about once a year, if I'm at a conference or on a road trip. When I make coffee, it's like a dessert. Satan was not going to let me go easily. Almost as if I was having an out of body experience, I took a cup and filled it halfway with coffee. I like those little flavored creamers they have, so I put 2 hazelnut containers in. Then I saw they had hazelnut flavored coffee, so I put some of that in. Next, 2 sugar packets. And 2 more creamers. And 2 more sugar packets, because I remembered that coffee always tastes a little bitter to me so I like a lot of sugar. I mixed the delicious smelling concoction and paid for it.

When I got back on the bus there was still time before we had to leave. I drank my coffee and ate my remaining almonds. When I had drunk about half of the coffee, I started to feel sick. The coffee was so sweet, it was gross. And it did not go with almonds. Ick. I gathered up my strength, got off the bus, and threw that coffee away. HA HA, I won! I did not give in all the way, just part way, but in the end I came out ON TOP, yes I did!!! It took about an hour for my stomach to feel normal again. Just in time for my cheeseburger and fries lunch.