Of course we all knew it had to happen.  Almost the second I pressed “publish” on my so easy post, the doorbell rings.  It’s the FedEx guy with a package.   Now we never, ever get packages here so that was unusual in itself.  What was in the package, you ask?  Why there would be 24 English Muffins from Harry and David’s.  Along with chocolate truffles from See’s.  A present from one of the great-aunt’s kids who wanted to thank me for the help with the lawyer.  Seriously, people, email would have been fine.  Said person obviously did not pay any attention to what I currently eat because if she had she would not have sent this stuff.

And no sooner do I open the above package then the doorbell rings again (I mean, seriously, I go weeks with nobody coming to my door).  It’s the little girl and her mom from around the corner.  Bringing me a cupcake.  Chocolate-chocolate from my most favorite in the world cupcake shoppe.  To thank me for watching said little girl while her mom ran some errands.  I told them it was joy to watch Claire and no thanks was needed (and  no cupcake either for that matter).  I invited them in, thinking at the very worst we could all share it, but no they had to go.  Leaving me all alone with the cupcake.  And hearing Claire say in a very satisfied voice, as they walked away, “I think she LOVED it, mom!” (So at least somebody was happy I had a cupcake).

But I’m in charge here, right? And I happen to be in an excellent place.  So I took the cupcake, put it in a container, sealed the container with the food saver, and placed it in the very back of the refrigerator.  Then I called Mac and told him it was there (thereby making myself accountable if I did decide to eat it because he would notice it was gone).

And all 24 English muffins are now also in the freezer to be taken with us at Christmas. The truffles were marched over to the next-door neighbors to thank their teenage boys for shoveling my driveway three times this week.  I could have frozen the truffles also, but I was afraid I absolutely, positively would not have been able to resist them.  And I know they are in a better place because the boys had opened and started eating them before I even got out their front door.

So I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself when today I have a situation where eating a cupcake or chocolate muffin sounded like a fine way to handle not handle things.  And I realized that that is one of my downfalls.  When somebody is waiting for me to make a decision on something I don’t want to deal with, I would so many times choose to eat instead.

I didn’t do that this time, but I wonder if when I do do it do I then decide to turn my attention to my having eaten whatever and totally put the decision I need to make out of my mind?

So instead of eating, I need to decide what I’m going to do.  (And honestly I still would have had to decide what to do whether I’d had a cupcake or  not).

The problem with the situation is that I really hate to tell people no.  (I’d prefer they not ask to start with.  :X)  An extended family member is asking me for help on something that I really don’t want to do.  It seems pretty selfish to say no since they are helping somebody else.  But is their overcommitment really my problem?  I think not.  Right now I’m ignoring their request (one of the benefits of living in a foreign country … you can pretend you haven’t received their message for at least a while) with the hopes that they’ll give up on me go to somebody else, especially since they need this done in the next week.  Plus now that I think about it she didn’t really “ask”, she just emailed me and told me to do it.

Not sure what I’m going to do (or not do), except that none of my choices include cupcakes.