April 25th, 2007
First off, I want to say Anaheim is kicking our asses and I am very grumpy about this. My current Canucks boyfriend Roberto Luongo is looking tired and slow after only one day off since game seven of round one, and with some players out and the undeniable strength of the Ducks, I fear we are in for a second round lose. Which is how you know I’m a true Canucks fan: we drop our team like a hot rock as soon as the going gets rough. As Esan says: Stinky ‘Nucks!
Oh look, we just tripped one of our own defensemen. I have to stop watching now.
So the kid is back at our place. This means my life has degenerated to answering endless questions about why do we have to go to bed before dawn, and scraping melted chocolate off the inside of the dryer. But mostly we discuss the relative merits of different species of junk food, as the kid tries to weasel me into buying her crap. Aren’t Sun Chips the healthiest chips? Can we get Sun Chips, because they’re whole wheat? Look, Sun Chips have no transfats, let’s buy some! Clearly the kid has internalized some messages about the food ingredient hierarchy, but this doesn’t change the fact that Sun Chips are still chips, and chips are garbage food! But how do you explain marketing manipulation to a 7 year old? Or the fact that adding a healthy ingredient to a shitty food doesn’t change the shitty food into a healthy food – it just changes it into a shitty food with a good marketing angle. I know plenty of adults who haven’t figured this out; it’s probably a bit much to expect the kid to.
I’m not a junk food Calvinist. I eat junk food. I personally love potato chips, and pretzels, and Mars bars. But I had to cut most of that stuff out when I decided I didn’t want to be fat anymore, and now it is just an occasional treat for me. You just can’t eat that stuff every day and expect to stay at a reasonable weight and be healthy. And kids need the best start they can get, and that means, among other things, making sure that just about everything they ingest is nutritious. Children do not need potato chips. They need milk and carrots. The kid gets a lot more junk food at home than she gets here, and she’s used to having it. It’s hard for her to adjust to how Husband and I eat, and junk food tastes good, so I can understand why she’s resisting it. But I’m standing my ground. We have dessert every night, so it’s not like she is being deprived of sugar. She likes cinnamon toast with a bit of sugar on it – I’m fine with serving that for breakfast. But I am not fine with serving her McDonald’s for lunch every day, or giving her a bowl of Smarties as an afternoon snack, or bags of chips just on a whim. But try explaining the reasoning behind this to a kid!
On the plus side, I got our duvet covers laundered today. Combine that with fresh sheets, fluffy pillows, a cool and silent room, and a fifth of rye, and you have a good night’s sleep for yours truly! Huzzah!
I’ve looked into it. Sun chips aren’t any better for you in an “eating so you don’t get fat” way.
ps – every time I see “GO CANUCKS GO” on a bus or whatever, I always want to put a “JUST” in front of the “GO”s.
But that’s me.
Anaheim was the better team all year, and we’re missing two of our top 4 defensemen, as well as two important forwards. Its going to be a tough haul for us, but I’ll root for them until the end. I can look at it rationally, though, and not jump off the bandwagon just because they are outmatched.