Oh Joy!

Just when you thought I was being too serious... I am close as I'll ever be to doing a cartwheel. I found my favorite ice-cream flavor again! JOY!

It's Ben and Jerry's "Neopolitan Dynamite", an insane combination of "Cherry Garcia" and Chocolate Fudge Brownie icecreams, SIDE BY SIDE. I'm sure it used to have a different name, something more humble and less of-the-moment perhaps, but this precious creamy goodness kept me company many a night when I first graduated from college and I was lonely and overwhelmed. There were nights when all 960 calories and 52g of fat kept me fed, both physically and spiritually (yup the entire 1 pint). What can I say -- if you're a fat kid, or just someone with an insatiable sweet-tooth, we understand each other.

I have been in mourning for years, because I thought B&J had discontinued my sugary escape. And I must have just overlooked it at the supermarket, seduced into committing adultery with "Dublin Mudslide" and "Pistachio Pistachio". I am overcome with shame now that I realise ol' faithful was sitting in that same supermarket freezer, watching me as I cast nary a glance in her direction and reached for her second-rate sisters.

Today, when I returned to that same spot, after a fruitless hour-long search for a movie at the new "it" movie theater in LA, the Landmark, I was looking for a hug, for someone to keep me company on this cold night whilst Bren is away. Nothing sounded good, not the "Phish Food" or the "Everything But The...". I sighed in defeat, eyeing the frozen yoghurt as a consolation prize, something that would make my Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow morning just that little bit easier. Suddenly, she screamed out, "Look at me dammit!" and I finally thought to bend down, look beyond her corny new name, and recognize my old friend for who she was: a pint of cherry-vanilla-chocolate chip-chocolate brownie love.