Over the past few weeks I've developed a really bad habit. When I wake up in the morning I have this uncontrollable urge for something cold. Really cold. We're not talking Special K with milk here. Oh no. I'm talking about food that is ice cold. Popsicles, Italian ice, and (gasp!) ice cream. After fighting it for the first two months of summer, I finally gave in to my urge at the beginning of August and have been eating ice cream (or something similar) for breakfast every day. I know it's horrible to do this, but I just can't stop myself.

Proof: When my mom was in for her birthday extravaganza, I didn't even bother to hide and/or disguise this bad habit from her even though I knew I would get grief for it. When questioned by her I even tried to rationalize it by saying that ice cream is another dairy product, so it is no different than eating yogurt for breakfast. Yeah, I know. Pathetic.

But then I realized this weekend that it's not my fault. Seriously. I've been brainwashed into craving ice cream, and I can't be held accountable for my actions. How was I brainwashed? So glad you asked. I was brainwashed by the ice cream man that visits my apartment complex with his demon truck eight to ten times a day. I'm not exaggerating, as it is impossible for the truck to be anywhere in your vicinity without you knowing the truck is around. The truck plays a series of songs to lure little children to its ice cream that you can here whenever the truck is nearby. I wake up to the truck in the morning, and it is usually one of the last things I hear outside my building before going to bed.

I didn't realize how much I'm harassed by the ice cream man until this weekend. Not only did he wake me up at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday, but when I returned from running errands that morning (a mere ninety minutes later), the ice cream man was visiting us again! When I walked past his truck to get into my building, I gave him the look. The mean look. Not the mean look I use on the gang kids who come into the library to recruit, the meaner look. The look that is so mean I only break it out for special situations. And do you want to know what the ice cream devil did in response to the look that makes people back away from me? He smirked. AAARGH! It took everything in me not to smack him.

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