Day 24

0719h. Craving pancakes so making them for breakfast. Kids going crazy in anticipation.

0820h. Finish making rest of pancakes--iron pants, put away laundry and get ready for work in between flips.

1537h. Another crazy day at work; ponder the need for something sweet and life sustaining (ie/chocolate) right about now.

1600h. Company representative from international food company that sells a lot of chocolate stops by for visit. Tell her of my no-chocolate zone and how she cannot give me free chocolate. She suggests I have sex with my husband in lieu of chocolate. Remind her I have 3 small children; no time/energy for such ideas. She responds with him coming to workplace for same...co-workers troubled by conversation and ask for ear muffs...

1610h. Go to fridge to get snack. See left over cookie wafters from cake co-worker made for colleague's return to work (a cake shaped like a raft). Eat it without thinking. Seconds later, realize there was chocolate cake still attached to cookie. Then realize, with sinking heart, that I had a slice of that chocolate cake yesterday.

1611h. Devastated by my unknowing end to my days without chocolate. Only made it to day 23.

1612h. Speak to receptionist--ask her for free chocolate she received from company rep: if I cheated, I might as well go whole hog.

1632h. Eat chocolate bar in front of Tammy. Receive shocked, bewildered stare in response. She realizes she watched me eat the chocolate cake yesterday and didn't even realize my mistake.

1709h. Eating yogurt snack while hearing Tom tell of a friend who upchucked cottage cheese and yogurt on an airplane while taxiing for take-off to Cuba. This tale is to foreshadow something for me...

1925h. Tired. Extremely tired. Losing will to finish paperwork. Give up and head for meeting.

2106h. Community meeting finally done. Feeling feverish, achy, slightly nauseated. Start to wonder if I have food poisoning from yogurt: it was slightly beyond its best before date.

2130h. Get home, ask husband to drive babysitter home (a task usually left to me). Gather myself under blanket on couch in fetal position and curse my not-so-iron stomach...so tired, forget that I can eat copious amounts of chocolate at will.