What has happened to all the red ones????

Okay, let me start out by saying that this is going to be a ridiculous and silly post.

Even by my standards.

I can't help it though. It's something that I have been spending more time than I care to admit, thinking about.

And you know how they always say to write what you know. So I figure, why not.

Now to make sure we are on the same page and for people who are only casual readers of my blog, it is somewhat important to know of my great love for Jujyfruits. I have actually only been a hardcore addict for less than a year. I used to stick with Milk Duds, Good and Plenty's, StarBursts and M&Ms, oh and of course, Gummy Bears and Worms, either regular or the sour ones.

Lovely candies all.

I was never very tempted to try Jujuyfruits, I remembered them being quite sticky. And I don't know about you but I don't like having to peel something off my teeth and gums. I felt that this was asking a little too much. I don't even remember when I bought my first box of them. I do know that I would buy boxes of Mike n Ikes, or Dots on a far too regular basis.

Somehow I never found them very satisfying.

So one day, strictly for nostalgia's sake I guess, I grabbed a box of Jujyfruits instead of the Dots.
It had been at least 30 years since I had last eaten a Jujyfruit. I knew that they were a chewy, stick to your teeth and gums type candy that came in the usual fruit flavors, and for some reason, licorice.

I was completely amazed.

Somehow in the past 30 years, I had developed a new liking for them. Who knew? Yes they still were sticky, but all of a sudden that didn't seem like a good reason to banish them to the "I don't like this candy" category. They had such a nice flavor, not at all vague like Dots and Mike n Ikes tend to have.

In no time I had become a Jujyfruitaholic.

Now let me make this all a little more clear. I have type two diabetes. I can hear you now. SHAMEFUL! She should not be anywhere NEAR candy. Technically, yes that is true. Of course there are extenuating circumstances.

Really.

Point 1) You see I take this injectable diabetes drug called Byetta. Before Byetta I could not get my blood sugar below 150 (that's fairly high) and that was with taking two other pills to lower my blood sugar. Byetta really does work very well to lower my blood sugar. It actually, quite often works too well. Frequently my blood sugar will be as low as 45. 45 is getting into, slip into a coma and die territory. That's bad. Now onto Point 2) Byetta does work but it can also make you nauseated.

I know that my blogging friend Stephanie knows all this because she takes it too.

So here I am an hour or two after dinner and I feel my blood sugar dropping. Not a pleasant feeling. This is the point where you need to eat (or drink) something sugary. Remember Julia Roberts in "Steel Magnolia's"? You know, with the orange juice? Well that is a pretty accurate depiction.

Except I don't shake like her and my head doesn't spin a complete 360, but you get the point.

I don't know if you have ever noticed at your local pharmacy that they sell these rolls of candy for Diabetics. They don't call them candy of course. I don't really remember what their official designation is but they are basically hardened orange flavored discs of sugar.

Yuck!

I figured that if it's okay to pop a couple of those in a low blood sugar moment, then why not a handful of candy. I have even asked my Dr about it and she has told me Fine. So I have gotten in the habit of keeping a goodly supply of Jujyfruits around just for these moments.

And now, I have finally arrived at my whole reason for this post.

You certainly can't ever say that I don't give sufficient background info.
For close to a year now I have been buying boxes of Jujyfruits. They are 88 cents a box at Walmart. I hardly ever leave Walmart without at least one box in tow. Lately though I have noticed a disturbing trend. My favorite color Jujyfruit is red. In fact my favorite flavor in several other candies is also red. Except for Starbursts. When it comes to them I am a pink and yellow girl all the way. I digress. Back to my Jujyfruits problem.

Yes, I really do have a problem.

Lately, as in the last few weeks, my nice boxes of Jujyfruits, have had a disappointingly low number of reds. I'm trying hard to not show just how disturbed by this I really am, but I have actually counted all the reds in a box and then how many yellows, orange, green and licorice pieces there are.

I am right! There are fewer reds!!!

I'm not sure what to do with this information. Normally I would write a strongly worded letter to the Company, But, if it is a conspiracy to cut down on red candies, it might not be safe to let them know that I am on to them.

I have watched enough TV to know what usually happens to whistle blowers.

The plot thickens.

Another candy I really like are the Fruit Slices (Gum drop candy in the shape of an orange slice.) at Walmart. They are a store brand candy and they sell for a dollar a bag. They have four colors. Orange, green, yellow and red. Now to be fair, there are fewer yellows than any other flavor. Then there are the reds. They are the flavor I like best. Then there are the green ones and the orange ones. A typical bag of fruit slices will have fifty percent orange and the rest will be the other flavors.

I am not at all happy about this.

First of all it is SO unfair. They already carry bags of Orange Slices, yes that's right. All orange ones. They have their very own bag. So where do they come off thinking they can monopolize the bag of FRUIT SLICES. My son Donald will verify this for me, by the way.

Of course his spin on it will be that I am crazy.

When I buy a bag of Fruit Slices I take several bags down to try to verify how many reds each bag has. Lemon too, I do like the lemon ones. I can go through quite a few bags before I find one that seems to have more than the usual paltry number of red ones.

I buy that bag. I take it home and eat all of the red and yellow slices.

And what do I do with the ever abundant oranges and greens?

Simple, I give them to Donald and Lisa and the girls. I have given them quite a few bags of orange and green fruit slices. Alexandra and Lorelai will eat anything. In fact they seem to love them. Donald, asked me the other night "Mom, do you actually buy this whole bag of candy just for the red and yellow slices"?

I know. Can he possibly get any Cheekier?

I don't think I even gave that question the dignity of an answer. After all we are talking a dollar a bag here. So what if I don't want the orange and green ones. So what if I offer them to my grandaughters. I look at this as a, win- win situation.

So here we are, my story seems to have come to an end.

I will keep buying my favorite candies and hope that one day the reds will come back in their previous numbers. Until then I will keep an ever watchful eye on what appears to be "The red candy Conspiracy".

I hope I'm not in too much danger.