Found In the Closet

I am a sweet person. That is, I love sweet foods. They call out to me from shop windows, whispering their quiet descent to my, somewhat resolute, self-control

I Love Sweets.

My mother and father were not sweets people. Rarely, would I find anything resembling junk food within the confines of my parent’s apartment. The closest thing to a snack in my childhood was a plain rice cake because it held no purpose outside the peckish impulses both my sister and I expressed. Simply, we were Cheerios (TM) children; that all too common class of New York City children born into upper-middle-class liberal families that had read Dr. Spock and enjoyed MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.

We were the tragically un-hip children in school. My younger sister and I were destined never to be popular. Donned in our sensible L.L. Bean jackets and non-name-brand shoes. We were never the envy of other kids.

“I am not going to get you those [expensive] shoes,” my mother used to say in her staccato German accent “you will out grow them in a month.”

“But mom!”

She was right of course, we would have out-grown them too quickly to ever rationalize spending hard-earned money on plastic and leather. No child of 10 should wear $50 shoes, but back then it was of little comfort that I would dress in shoes that kids in communist china would have considered “so last year.”

I had Velcro shoes before it was remotely cool to have Velcro shoes.

My sister and I were born to practical parents. Parents who knew the value of a dollar and would never frivolously spend money on such extravagances as expensive shoes or yummy treats. Bet we had a secret fund that we would use to purchase our contraband goodies. It was the gravy train, known to most inner-city children of non-legal working age as allowance. This magical pot of gold would surface every week and offer a child a temporary spending spree of delectable sweets. This sugar trust fund should have, theoretically, lasted a week, but I was weak and left to my own devices could devour a 1 lb. bag of Twizzlers in one sitting.

I have had a problem.

For all intents and purposes, I should have diabetes with the amount of sugar I have ingested in my lifetime. This severe addiction lasted well into my teens until, thanks to a hiatus in my deforming acne, I found girls far more intriguing. I had to lose the pudge and swore off candy and took up a healthier diet.

I’m still obsessed with sweets today and regularly have to remove a bag of Twizzlers from my basket at checkout at Duane Read on my purchase of shampoo. They just seem so inviting, small little glossy bags of goodness and I break easy. I am, however, getting better. I almost completely stopped going to CVS after Halloween to buy discounted Cadbury Cream Eggs. I hardly ever buy the seasonal Hershey’s Kisses after Christmas anymore.

I am a reformed candiholic, but it’s still hard, because once I break my candy seal, as I’ve said to many invitations to a chocolate morsel “you’ll find me in the middle of the night, in the closet, with a flashlight, a mouth covered in chocolate and a bag of snickers bars.”

…and unfortunately, it’s all true.


Comments

6 responses to “Found In the Closet”

  1. Hi Ben,
    I'm proud to be italian (not for my President), but are you sure you want to be italian?

  2. I saw your photos, and someone are fantastic. Which is the model of your camera?Thanks

  3. I take my pictures with a Cannon PowerShot S30, now called the PowerShot A70. I love it.

    Small.
    Portable.
    Inexpensive!

  4. THANKS.(Have a nice afternoon, I go in bed)Bye
    I write you soon

  5. I'm more of a chocoholic on an icecream binge sabbatical. Didn't you know that icecream is the new addiction? Get on the bandwagon, man!

    Ok, so it's my new addiction, but the choccomocha is just so good and it's the perfect blend of coffee and chocolate. I'll stop now.

  6. i feel your struggle man. nick has to hide the peanut M&Ms that he MUST buy for me (as some form of medication, they get the melancholy out) but he can only give me a handful and even if i beg and plead for more he has to say "no jessie." because, if i got to hold the bagful – the glorious one pound bagful – i would eat the whole thing and become prompty ill.