Carry-on luggage and other strange things

We just returned from a great getaway trip that I won. What? Yes…I WON it. It was a family reunion trip. I entered  when I lived in North Texas, so that’s where the reunion was held. Mr Darcy’s younger sister and her family flew in from the East Coast and we flew in from the Heartland. We had a great time.

In addition to everyone in Mr Darcy’s family, we were able to see my precious parents, my sister, brother in law and their 4 terrific boys AND my Great Aunt and Uncle who were in town for a wedding from South Carolina. I loved it! Even though our time was short, it was wonderful to be in the company of those we call “family.”

I don’t know if you are aware of this, but the airlines have imposed a lovely thing called a baggage cost. Basically, even though you are going far away from your closet and dresser, you are not supposed to need clothes, shoes and your Chi flat iron. So, unless you can fit those items in your small carry-on luggage (and that seems to get smaller every year), you have to pay to bring a suitcase. My father in laws says, “no big deal.” But we are a family of 5. The airlines charge $25 each way to check luggage. That would add $250 to the cost of our weekend trip. Yuck. So we have become quite good at bringing only what we need in the carry-ons and I dream of wearing a giant trenchcoat with hidden pockets to put my flat iron and shoes in!

Even with the challenges of packing everything I might need in the equivalent of a Holly Hobby Lunchbox, I want to tell you something: I love the airport. I love rolling my luggage behind me as I walk from gate to gate and I love LOVE people watching at the airport. Such fun.

Now we are back and I am going to divulge a great weakness of mine. Sit down. Take a deep breath. Here it is:  It’s grocery-store sugar cookies with Technicolor frosting. Cannot. Resist.  We returned home to an empty fridge (I like it that way), so I went to the Kroger and bought our groceries for the rest of the pay period. I was just about finished when I strolled over to the bakery department. It was like a siren song as I floated over to the “reduced” rack they had. My eyes were glazed, transfixed on the 400 clear, plastic boxes of cookies – for 49 cents. I’d like to say that the smarter part of me resisted, shouting, “NO, Janna! The ingredient list in those cookies is like the recipe for poison! Your children are allergic to food dye! Lard is certainly in those pretty round, frosted cookies! That bright blue frosting is going to stain your teeth! You will get sick from all the tooooxxxxxiiinnnnss.” Well, maybe somewhere in my mind I was hearing all of those things, but a louder voice said, “49 cents for sugar cookies… delicious sugar cookies. Buy them, Janna. Eat them, Janna. Maybe share one or two with your family.”  Before I knew it, 4 packages were in my cart. I tried to hide them under a large loaf of sourdough bread and organic spinach, but the checker wanted to start a conversation about them as I tried to look anywhere but at the belt of shame, carrying my cookies to the bagging area. I nodded as she remarked about the great deal on the cookies. It was as if I believed not acknowledging the cookies made them somehow healthier. Perhaps vegan, gluten free, and certainly not processed flour and sugar. It didn’t work. I still knew. And I still loved them. Yes, that’s past tense. They are gone now. We have removed the temptation by eating them. I feel so much better now that they can’t taunt me from the counter anymore.

Cookies!

Is there a 12 step program for grocery store sugar cookie consumption?

~Janna