lent(s)

During my senior year of college I successfully completed lent*. My decision to participate in this self-deprivatory, silly season can be attributed to my overly-Christian friend Becca, who urged me to try giving up the use of swear words.
My first response was "fuck no!"
But after giving it some thought, I decided to throw my hat in the Proverbial religious ring. In fact, I then decided not only to give up swearing, but also refined sugar and instant messaging**.

It was tough at first--I had a bad habit of going to the campus bookstore, buying a whole pack of Mambo candy, and devouring it in under 5 minutes. And as anyone in college knows, deleting IM from one's social life can be both difficult and dangerous.
But I did it and it felt good.

Last year I saw The Passion of The Christ on Ash Wednesday. Needless to say, that in itself was like 40 days of hell.

Although it's a little late, I've decided to "do" Lent this year. I wish I could give up something I'm addicted to, like my morning cup of coffee, reality TV, or going to church, but that would be so cliche. And also, like, stupid.

Instead, I'm giving up Occidental eating utensils. From now on it's either my hands or chopsticks.
See you in April, fork & spoon...
or maybe not.

*Thanks in part to Meghan Riley, who also gave up swearing and who, with me, developed a list of substitute phrases such as "dag nab it" and "oh, fiddlesticks."
**I thought about drinking, too. So I did.