I used to be a really picky eater when I was growing up.  I liked spinach (which is weird, I know, for a picky eater), mac & cheese (homemade, not a box), pork chops, and pretty much anything that had lots of sugar.  That was about it.  My tastes broadened as I grew up, but I still leaned heavily toward a fondness for cake and pie and all things chocolate, and when I was feeling especially low – banana splits.  Eventually my body reached a point of sugar overload and told me, Quit it, will you?!  I decided it was best to listen.

Another thing about me, is that in times of stress and fatigue, I feel like crying.

I’ve been really busy of late.  I’m revising a novel that has been a labor of love, but consumes a lot of my time.  I’m also co-director of an annual writers’ retreat that is coming up next week.  So, in the interest of writing efficiency and mobility, I decided to buy a laptop.  And I wanted it to have touch-screen technology.  I got online, found the perfect model and ordered it.

When the laptop arrived a few days ago, I unpacked it and went through the process of setting it up.  It was zippy and sleek and Windows 8 was actually not bad – BUT <—- (big but) – the display was NOT a touch-screen like I ordered.

Bugger, hell.

It took me two days of phone calls and waiting on hold and emailing and waiting for responses to my email, and then calling and holding again, before I finally had a prepaid UPS label to slap on that sucker and send it back.

It was the last phone call that did me in, though.  After establishing (with the third person I talked to) that it was, indeed, the wrong item, the returns rep asked me if I would consider keeping it if they gave me 5% off.  I said, “No.  It’s not what I ordered!”

And then she asked, “Would you keep it if we give you 10% off?”

I knew I was in trouble.  My eyes welled up, and my voice took on that quavery underwater tone.  “No!  I just want to return it.”  I felt like I was begging.

I finally found what I wanted locally and for $170 less, so my misery wasn’t all for naught.  But by the time I brought the right laptop home, I was feeling battered and fragile, and I needed, REALLY NEEDED to listen to my mood and tell my body to just shut up for the time being.

And my mood was saying, Give me sugar!

So I did.

And in the wise words of Robert Frost . . . that has made all the difference.