Every time I lose those three pounds, I find them again, right back where they were. And it’s not pretty.
When Covid hit I was very happy with my weight. With the incentive of a beach vacation, I had lost seven pounds that had been bugging me for a few months. I felt great! And through the summer of 2020 I kept active, doing fast walks as I had been doing at the gym, and riding my bike. Sadly, those good habits began to fade with the summer.
I had, out of the blue, thought of Mallomars. Mmm. I craved them long before summer was over, but discovered that Nabisco only sells them between September and March. What a great marketing tactic! Scarcity. Humans always seem to want what we cannot have. Which is not to say that Mallomars aren’t the best cookie ever made, anyway. Nothing compares. I tried all the knock-offs. Pinwheels. Whippets. No. Pinwheels will do in a pinch, but no. And if you eat enough of them, you’ll have plenty to pinch.
Now that I’ve lost the three pounds once again, it’s the holidays. And Mallomars appeared on the shelf at HyVee. What?! In 2020 I had to order them in quantity from Wal-Mart, a place I normally avoid. We consumed 13 boxes of them, having frozen some to eat in the lean months of summer. In 2021 I did not buy a single box, wasn’t even thinking about them. And now look. In my face, at HyVee. I could hardly not buy them. They were the last two boxes! What the heck! And I have people visiting!
I imagine those three pounds will be in my face (actually, someplace else) next week or the week after.
It’s not actually three pounds that I’d like to lose, although three does put a little spring in my step. It’s more like ten. Ten would put me back where I was for that beach vacation. Ahh, I remember it so fondly. The ten, though, seem to really like me. We’re stickin’ with you, friend, they say. Sometimes I think Oh well, this is who I am now. Embrace it.
Inevitably I try again and I lose those same damn three pounds. Lo and behold, like a bad penny, they turn up again and again and again.
“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” ― Sophia Loren
“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.” ― Amy Bloom
“You know when you buy a bag of salad and it gets all brown and soggy? Cookies don’t do that.” – Unknown
If you’re looking for my paintings, go here. If you want cards or art, you’ll find all of that on my website. If you enjoy these letters, feel free to forward this one to anyone you think might like it. And if someone forwarded this one to you, you can sign up here to receive the letters right in your Inbox. Finally, you’ll find past letters and poems here.
Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”
