I stand before you here today (okay I'm sitting, it's easier to type that way) because I need to admit that I have a problem; and I need to admit it to the world so that I myself can never hide from it again.

I am a Su Doku addict.

Oh, it started innocently enough. I was introduced to Su Doku when I received a little Su Doku puzzle book in my Christmas stocking just last December. (Was it only last December? It can feel like forever when you are in the demonic grip of an addiction). I glanced at the book and put it aside...telling myself that perhaps I would try it one day when I had nothing better to do.

I picked the book up a few days later during some down time, and tried to solve the first puzzle. It was frustrating, irritating...it made my mind feel fuzzy and my heart rate go dangerously high. I put the book down and decided that Su Doku just wasn't for me. But alas, I was talking with a so-called "friend" one day, and she offered me a couple of tips on how to solve the puzzles. I picked the book up later that day and successfully solved the first puzzle. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was already too late for me. I was hooked, and hooked hard.

Soon I found myself using my last few dollars before payday to buy pencils and erasers instead of food. I even - oh this is so hard to admit - stole a pencil from my sweet trusting mother's purse one day when she wasn't looking. When she noticed the pencil was missing I lied and told her that the dog ate it. I ate and slept sporadically - nothing mattered but getting to my Su Doku book and solving another puzzle. I began to go on midnight forays into the seedier realms of the Internet (Su Doku forums), looking for other Su Doku addicts so that I could find newer, faster ways to solve the puzzles. It was never enough! I needed more! More, I tell you!

Life is dark here on the Su Doku side of town. I want to make it back to the real world, I really do, but the call of the Su Doku puzzle book is so hard to resist. I need help. I need to find the strength to say "No! No, I will not solve a puzzle today! Get thee behind me, Su Doku!"

Well, that is my story. I must go now because I need to solve...um, this horrible problem of mine. Yeah, that's it. I'm going to open up my book of...um, my book of inspirational messages. Yep, inspirational messages. But I'll need something to underline the messages that inspire me best.

Does anyone have a pencil?

Tracy