Darkness. Sugar. Ugh.

First, I have to get something off of my chest that I am still bitter about. Twenty-five years ago I went trick-or-treating with my friend Theresa in her neighborhood. I was dressed as a bum -- much like what I am wearing as I write this. Anyway, since I knew we weren't going to have our candy X-rayed to check for pins and other metal objects that have been inserted by bad people, we trusted the visual inspection of our parents.

I spilled out my haul, careful not to mix it up with my friend. Mrs. M. carefully looked over the goods and gave me the OK to have a piece. My friend the mini Snickers bar was calling me. It spoke louder than the Reeses cup that year. But I digress.

I carefully opened that little nugget of goodness when I saw what looked like a pinhole in the chocolate. What? What is this imperfection in this perfect little block of yum? I took it to Mrs. M. and asked about it, concerned for my health and well being. She looked at it, said it's fine, and then it disappeared. She ate it.

She ate the morsel that I waited a whole year for -- the first piece of Halloween candy. It's always the sweetest. I can't look at a Snickers bar without thinking of that fateful moment. Perhaps I ought to address this in my next therapy appointment.

Now that I am a mom, I know to keep that first piece of candy sacred. However, now that I'm a mom I also do not want the punch bowl sized container of sugar in my house. To be honest, we still have some hard candies from last Halloween hidden somewhere in my kitchen. And lest we not address the future "why can't I have a piece of candy?" debates that are my life for the next couple of weeks until I can secretly get rid of most of the stash. I think I'm going to unload some of this sugar off on my personal trainers friends.

As for Daylight Saving Time, I miss it already. I need copious amounts of sunlight, especially in the evening. My kids need copious amounts of sunlight. I need for my kids to have copious amounts of sunlight. I cannot stress enough the need to let them run.

The only -- and I mean ONLY -- good thing I can said about standard time is that I can trick my kids into going to bed earlier. I have a feeling my daughter is catching on to my ways now that she is getting better at telling time. She knows an hour can't pass in a minute, so when I advance the clock from 7 to 8 p.m. she gets suspicious. We have chimes that ring at the top of the hour. Hearing those chimes twice in such a short time is a dead giveaway. I have to rethink that clock now.

Sometimes the darkness in the morning works to my advantage -- but only sometimes and only when I hear little footsteps before 6 a.m. I can still convince them that since the sun isn't up, they shouldn't be either. Since I'm a morning person, I'd opt for the early bedtime any day, so an occasional early morning by my kids isn't terrible.

So from a calendar standpoint, the next pick-me-up is the winter solstice, as it offers the promise of longer daylight to come. Who's the nerd who does a dance on the summer solstice? Me. I am that nerd.

What can I saidÉ you've got to have something to look forward to, right?

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