Jasper Jones

For years there were no Dunkin Donuts stores in Tennessee. I don’t know why. There aren’t any 7-Elevens, either. But all of a sudden there are Dunkin Donutes stores popping up all over the state. There are several back home now - my mom told me about them last time she called. There are 2 here now and more coming. So everyone at the hospital is thrilled - they make great donuts and they make awesome coffee - for less than half the cost of the Starbucks coffees.

My favorite donut is the old fashioned jelly filled donuts with granulated sugar on the outside. What’s yours?

One of my friends is very concerned about her weight. She’s not heavy at all but she says that diabetes runs in her family and both of her parents are overweight. She sees how being overweight can lead to so many health problems that she has sworn to herself to never let herself get fat.

She refuses to eat pizza or anything with a lot of carbs. I thought that watching her food intake was all she does, but last night I discovered that she also takes diet pills to boost her metabolism and help keep her appetite suppressed.

She showed me the bottle of Hoodia tablets that she uses. It is supposed to be very popular in Beverly Hills with all the actresses. She bought the Hoodia from a web site called Lab88 and they specialize in Safe Diet Pills.

One of my favorite places for a quick burger or breakfast is Jack in the Box. They have a great variety of menu items and you just can’t get tired of the food. Their sirloin burger is huge and actually fills me up. For breakfast, they have a sirloin, egg and cheese burrito that is filling and a bargain at under $3.

But best of all they are having a happy hour special on their fruit smoothies. Jack in the Box has three flavors of fruit smoothies:

• Strawberry Banana
• Mango
• Orange Sunrise

If you get to Jack in the Box right after class, between 3:00 and 5:00, you can buy a smoothie at half price. So that’s a real bargain, it’s healthy (made from real fruit juices and non-fat yogurt) and it tastes great.

For a special treat, once a week we go to Starbucks in the morning for breakfast. They have just started serving oatmeal in the morning and it’s really very good. What they recommend is a cup of Starbucks vanilla latte plus protein and a cup of the new “perfect oatmeal.”

To be honest, it’s a little too expensive on a college student’s budget to do this very often, but it is a really nice way to start the day with a couple of good friends. I like the oatmeal and they have a really good apple bran muffin if you like muffins better. But now that the mornings have a little chill to the air, the oatmeal is a nice warm way to break the fast.

The temperature dropped about 20 degrees overnight and today it feels like a typical fall day. There is no humidity and the air feels really fresh after the past couple days of wind and rain.

I really enjoyed the walk to class this morning. It was invigorating.

Now that the weather is turning a little cooler it makes me think of my mom’s pot roast, her mac and cheese, and my favorite thing, her chili. I wish I could have a big bowl of her chili tonight. I don’t even know anywhere around here that makes a decent pot of chili. Guess I’ll have to ask around and see if anyone has any ideas about where to get some chili tonight.