Special Bulletin

We interrupt your regularly scheduled rant about my trip to New Jersey to bring you this special report:

Mama Jo is SO busted.

I had managed, quite nicely, to avoid getting sucked into playing Sudoku. I know it's the latest "big thing," but I've never been the kind of person to follow trends, so resisting this one was not difficult for me. In fact, knowing that it's the latest thing made it that much easier to resist, because I am a stubborn pain in the ass that way. BUT. My other grandmother...the one I like...the one who is smart and sassy and sweet and feisty and all of the things I want to be when I am her age...bought Mama Jo a Sudoku book for Christmas. (I guess that technically makes her the one who's busted, but this is my blog, and I make the rules, so she gets a pass and I'm still putting this all on Mama Jo's shoulders.) I had seen Mama Jo working through her puzzles the last few times I was over at her house, but it didn't make much of an impression on me. Again...I deliberately resisted getting sucked in.

BUT THEN, Mama Jo brought her Sudoku book with her to New Jersey. And Mama Jo proceeded to work through her puzzles every morning at breakfast. And she slyly started talking to me about how SHE got sucked in and how she works the logic and how frustrating it was for her at first, but she's made it through the beginning levels and is now in the "Hard" section of the book. And I found myself craning my neck to see if I could follow how she was solving these things. And we talked about strategy and process, and I found myself getting interested.

But really, I don't need another hobby. As it is, I don't have time for the ones I already have. So again, I resisted, and while she did her puzzles, I struggled to get internet connection so I could check up on the news and see how my Blogger friends were doing. Sadly, it was too late. The seed had been planted. And it sat there, in my subconscious, just waiting to bear fruit.

And when I got home, and I was tired and bored, and not wanting to move off the couch, because I was so worn out, I got online and followed a link to some Sudoku puzzles. Just to see if I could do one by myself. Just curious. Nothing more.

Uh-huh.

Nothing more, my ass. Did you hear the great big slurping sound that was ME, getting SUCKED INTO PLAYING SUDOKU every DAY? I'm OBSESSED, people. It is disturbing. Crack whores in need of their daily fix have NOTHING on me, I tell you. NOTHING! Until I have worked my daily puzzle, nothing else exists. Turtle wants breakfast? Tough luck, kid...Mommy needs to figure out where this 9 goes. Oscar has his hands all over me, working his magic? Get back to me later, baby. I need to finish this column. Snark's Mistress comes over, bearing Stargate SG-1 dvds? Well, okay, I'll stop for that, but I'm going back to it the second she walks out the door, I SWEAR!

So, yeah, Mama Jo is on my list now. I was perfectly content to thumb my nose at the masses who got fooled into obsessing over these silly puzzles until she had to turn me into one of those puzzle-working sheep, too. GAH! Or should that be Baaaaaaa? (Yeah, okay, that was lame. I've been spending too much time with Oscar. I concede that point. But I'm still not firing on all thrusters right now, so cut me some slack, okay? Okay. Thank you. That is all.)