Chutes and Ladders

I never liked the game Chutes and Ladders when I was a kid. I always landed on the worst square, getting so close to the top and then tumbling down while listening to insensitive snickers from other players. I hated that there was no strategy and that I was completely at the mercy of the game.

(Look closely... you can see me on square 87... I'm even getting into the cookie jar)


These days, it is easy enough to find/develop/create a strategy for life, and yet I'm the one pushing myself down the slippery slope. Complaining to my husband tonight of fatigue and a headache, he asked me if I'd taken anything. My answer? "Yeah, I ate four cookies." Ohh... maybe eating those cookies while he was putting our son to sleep wasn't the best idea. Maybe on the heels of the snowman peep that I devoured during our block tower building session tonight, following the wine, cheese, chips and guacamole excuse for a dinner, which succeeded the vanilla latte and Flan Normand afternoon delight, and the previously consumed beer flight and pizza lunch....

Maybe I'm now skipping ahead on the board to the precipice of disaster time and time again, just hoping to scream, "wheee! This time I've done it to myself!" What kind of weird masochist spends an entire year trying to get more healthy and fit only to design personal sabotage?

The apparent answer to that question is ... ME.

Thank goodness I got out for a short, brisk run this morning. Thank goodness I have an awesome friend who invited me. Thank goodness I'm running another 5k on Saturday, and I have a different-but-still-totally-awesome friend who invited me for that. Thank goodness I have a husband that loves me and laughs at my cookie consumption and brings me two Bayer and a glass of water.