Wednesday is ordinarily the day when I take my son out to the movies. It’s a nice weekly routine of ours, one that serves as a reward for his diligent work in homeschool while breaking up the week so it doesn’t seem so long.

It’s also one of the hardest dieting days of the week, thanks to the concession stand at the movie theater. It’s bad enough that they no longer offer “small” versions of anything: just medium, large and extra-large (which makes one wonder if medium is the new small). Bad enough they have all sorts of my favorite candies, seldom seen in convenience stores.

Nope, it’s the dang popcorn machines that inevitably prove my downfall. Let’s face it: there’s nothing particularly delicious about popcorn at the theaters except the butter. Pure liquid artery-clogging gold, that stuff.

And, yes, it’s possible to order movie theater popcorn without butter… but why? Might as well sneak in a bag of Styrofoam packing peanuts to munch on.

So I’m being a good girl today and budgeting my calories accordingly. Breakfast? Who needs breakfast? The theater opens at noon, people. I figure as long as we’re there a few minutes before that I can still call my medium popcorn with butter “brunch”.