Year 2, Day 64: Donuts for Breakfast?

It was absolutely raining cats and dogs this morning and because 1) I couldn't find Ruby's rain-slicker and 2) I have no umbrella, I decide to drive Ruby to school. I figure I can do it and get to work before a 9AM meeting. The problem is, I can't leave Ruby at school until the 8:20AM bell, and it's 7:55AM so I figure I'll go get some coffee before I drop her off. Naturally, she comes with me and I allow her to get anything she wants from Dunkin Donuts (even at her age, she knows to eschew the subpar bakery offerings at Starbucks). She chooses three powdered munchkins. An eyebrow raising choice for a kid who reliably picks chocolate. So, there we were, in the warm car, listening to the Beatles' Rubber Soul and she was chomping away, with more powder on her face than a French aristocrat. We were having a great time, and I couldn't help but wonder, who proposed Donuts as a breakfast item? I realize that at one time I was a perpetrator of this fraud, but it seems to me so crazy now. When you bring donuts to your workplace, you're basically saying "I've brought dessert instead of a meal. Enjoy." While South Beach Diet fans know that the Donut has been singled out as the worst of all possible foods for its high sugar, high carb, empty calories and amazing amount of bad fats, it still remains something that smells great when it has just been baked and is often very delicious. If just reading about donuts makes your knees go weak, you can inure yourself to them by viewing their nutritional value here: http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-030000000000000000000.html

Breakfast
3 Egg Omelet with
3 Slices of Ham
Shredded Jarlsberg
V-8

Snack
1 Medium Dunkin Donuts Coffee (half decaf)
1 Joy Stick

Lunch: Russo's ($4.74)
Red Leaf, Red Onion, Red Pepper
Chicken, Broccoli, Feta

Dinner
Catfish a la Em
Leeks

In 2002, prior to the arrival of Krispy Kreme donuts in Massachusetts, but after they had become the "it" donut of the time, I noticed that they had installed one in Penn Station. During that year, Emily's mother was sick and Emily stayed in New Jersey with Ruby for about 10 weeks until the funeral. I spent those weeks alone, eating the worst of everything every night— big Chinese Food Combo dinners, Steak with friends, and my favorite, raw cookie dough (Emily disdained this choice mightily). It was a very difficult time made more difficult by loneliness. Every Friday night I got on a train and headed to New York, and just about every Monday morning, my father-in-law would drop me off somewhere in Manhattan, and I would make my way to Penn Station, and get back to work. Jill would nearly always pick me up from the station, and almost always, I would bring back two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for the Domania gang. Of course, you're crazy if you think I could be a on train for four hours every week with two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and not eat them all. Knowing this temptation, I would buy two separately for myself, and try to space them out on the train with coffee, so I wouldn't dig into the supply. If I ever have to wonder how I put on 40lbs, I just have to think of that time. I don't think it got any worse than that, but it didn't get a whole lot better until I knew I was going to turn 40. I knew choosing to lose weight would mean giving up donuts, probably for good. And you know what? I go to Dunkin Donuts several times a week now, and not only do I NOT miss them, I don't even miss buying them for the office. And I know that the office is glad about that, too.