Never again.

I had such a nice Saturday with my sweetie... we took a little day-trip to Columbus to eat at Carrabba's, shop, and see a movie. The order of business got a little reversed once we got up there - we went to see "The Blind Side", which I definitely recommend. The movie was absolutely wonderful. After the movie, we shopped at one store and went to Carrabba's, and dinner tasted very nice, though after the meal our server confessed it was her first day and she was extremely nervous! That provided an explanation for the not-quite-stellar service, though I find it odd that a restaurant manager would have a new server's "first day" happen on a busy Saturday night. After dinner, we shopped ... and I didn't see anything that I couldn't live without, so David was relieved. We also enjoyed pleasant conversation with one of David's coworkers and his wife; we don't know them extremely well, and it was nice to build up some friendship with them. Well, that's the good part of the story.

When we were at the movies, I was hungry because it was almost 1:30 and I had not eaten lunch (or breakfast either, really), so I wanted to have some popcorn. It had been SUCH a long time since I ate movie popcorn... with butter... I decided that even though it was RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, I would go for popcorn - and a drink. Our movie did not start until almost 2:00, so we had plenty of time to find good seats, sit and eat popcorn during "screenvision" or whatever it is, and I planned to really get our money's worth and get the FREE REFILL on the popcorn before the show started. So, four of us munched on the Large popcorn, and I ate a lot of it - I was hungry! When the previews started, I headed back to the lobby for the free refill of the popcorn and drink, feeling like I was at least getting some kind of bargain, since a lot of people don't bother to get their popcorn & drink refilled after they spend all of that money. During the movie, I continued to munch, though not as much as before. When we went to dinner, I wasn't overly hungry because I was already full of popcorn.

Fast-forward to after we got home. When we got home around 9:30pm, I was tired from a fun day, but a little nauseous. After we went to bed, the heartburn started. Heartburn, nausea, upset stomach....I know what indigestion is now, because my body was practically refusing to digest the popcorn. I was almost a Pepto commercial! Almost. I was unable to sleep b/c of the burning in my chest, and I had that awful sense that maybe I would feel better if I vomited, but that didn't happen either. I was uncomfortable all day (constant heartburn) and not hungry until the evening when I tried to appease my rebelling stomach by eating a banana, chicken broth, and plain white rice. Even when I went to bed last night, I still had the heartburn. FINALLY, though, sometime during the night, it calmed down. When I woke up this morning, I was NOT burning, and very thankful for that fact.

What makes me upset with myself is that I know movie popcorn is not the best food choice, yet I was so motivated to get my money's worth that I ate it - a whole lot of it - at the expense of my body. If the money was that important to me, I should have protected my tummy AND my wallet and not had any. But I was hungry.... so I should have chosen something different (smaller) and just paid for it, knowing that it's very rare that I even walk up to a concession stand at a movie theater, and that it's OK if I pay too much for food now and then. During the wee hours of Sunday morning, I apologized to God for having my priorities out of line - because I did! It was a stupid reason to pack away that much popcorn. I was justifying a moment of gluttony, in the name of getting bang for my buck. Well, I got some bang, that's for sure - 24 hours of heartburn. But I also got forgiveness - for being shortsighted, selfish, and stupid.

The health of my body - God's temple! - is more important than preserving a few more bucks. I know that now. God will give me grace to choose better in the future. As for movie popcorn, the large size that comes with a drink and free refill? Never again.