thank goodness my car is not powered by diet lemonade...

so today . . .  i decided to quit complaining about the high price of gas... at least until the high price of diet lemonade from chick fil a goes down...

i've stopped drinking soda.  really.  it has been three or four weeks since a diet coke has passed my lips.  you know it has been a goal of mine to be soda free, and yet, i never last more than a few days before the siren song of that bubbly, caffeinated, sugary deliciousness called diet coke (or pepsi one or diet lemon cokesi) lures me right back in.  i couldn't help it.  i was probably slightly addicted... slightly...

and then a few weeks ago, i had lunch with diandra at chick fil a.  i ordered my usual kid's meal with a diet coke, but diandra ordered a diet lemonade (sweetened with splenda, mom, so don't worry.)  i looked at her quizically and she explained to me that she was trying to eat more healthfully and that included eliminating soda from her diet.

ok.  fine.  whatever.  (don't you hate it when your kids make better choices than you do...) we ate lunch and i enjoyed my diet coke and didn't give it another thought...

...until the next day when i was back at chick fil a for lunch.  (i eat lunch out a lot now.  this is new for me, since my lunch break was increased from half an hour to an hour this year.  now i have time to actually get out of the building, breathe some fresh air, and eat food i didn't have to prepare.  but i am somewhat limited in my choices, because an hour isn't as long as you might think it is--especially when you have to punch a time clock.  so i have to stay pretty close to work, which means chick fil a, jack in the box, subway, or mcdonald's.  chick fil a usually wins...)  so there i was, at the counter placing my order, and i found myself ordering a diet lemonade.  diandra had given me a taste of hers the day before, and it was really good.  so there i was, choosing lemonade over soda...

i'm pretty sure the earth stood still for a minute.

i ate my lunch, refilled my lemonade and headed back to work.  and then a funny thing happened.  over the next few days, i found myself choosing iced tea or diet lemonade over coke or pepsi.  and before i realized it,  i had gone for five days without any soda!  maybe i could really do it.  maybe i didn't need to have that sweet, fizzy, caffeine fix every day.  maybe i wouldn't die without it...

but if i was going to really stay away from sodas, i was going to have to find some alternatives.  and what i learned, over the last few weeks, is that not all un-carbonated beverages are created equally.  the iced tea at subway is sweetened with honey and tastes kind of yukky.  jack in the box has unsweetened iced tea (yay!) but they only make one batch a day, so if you go there for dinner, you are probably out of luck.  subway does have bottled flavored iced tea drinks, but they cost the same as a fountain drink and you can't refill them!  their fountain does have minute maid lite lemonade though, which is ok...

but the best beverage by far (if one is not going to drink diet lemon cokesi) is the diet lemonade at chick fil a!  i give it all the credit for helping me to stay soda-free.  it is what started me on the road to recovery, and it is what keeps me there.  the problem is, chick fil a is a little farther from my house than 7-11 (which, btw is probably going bankrupt now that i am not stopping there every morning for a giant diet lemon cokesi.)  and so today i had a brilliant idea!  i was going to see if it was possible to buy chick fil a's diet lemonade by the gallon!

i tossed this idea out to ms. jessica while we were on the playground.  ms. jessica loves chick fil a nearly as much as i do.  "so," i said to her, "do you think it is possible to buy the diet lemonade at chick fil a by the gallon?"  "yes," she said, "i know you can buy their sweetened tea by the gallon.  i think it is about $5."

ok.  five dollars for a gallon of lemonade.  that's not bad.  it would probably last me for four or five days, and it would keep me from drinking soda, and did  mention how delicious it is???  i was glad i could buy it by the gallon and have it at home and at school and in my car... i was pretty excited about it and already figuring out how much i was going to need every week...

and then i looked at my gas gauge.  i didn't immediately need gas (thank goodness) but it did make me think about how much i pay for gas.  a couple of weeks ago when i filled my tank, gas was about $4.29 a gallon!  four dollars and twenty nine cents a gallon!!!  it's crazy! and yet every couple of weeks i put ten gallons of the stuff in my car.  and complain about it (to myself, because it seems as though i am almost always by myself in my car, so there is never anyone there to listen to me rant and rave about the ridiculous price of gas!) 

and then suddenly it hit me.  i didn't mind paying $5 a gallon for lemonade (which i was just going to drink, and then, you know...) in fact, i was excited about it!  but i continued to complain about the price of gas, (which powers my car and takes me wherever i need to go!)  the gas is useful and necessary.  the lemonade is neither.  and yet i couldn't wait to get to chick fil a and buy myself a gallon of lemonade...

i'll admit i am not the most practical or consistant person on the planet.

but let's not lose sight of the good news!  the good news is, i've stopped drinking soda!!  and so, if it costs me $5 a gallon for lemonade, that's ok.  it is a good trade.  i'll just make a sandwich one day a week to offset the cost of it.  it will be worth it...

... or at least, it would have been worth it at $5 a gallon.  but when i got up to the counter at chick fil a to place my order, i discovered that the diet lemonade was not $5 a gallon.  it was $10.73 a gallon.

yeah, the price of gas is looking better and better...