Lent

I'm not exactly a regular church-goer, but I do hit the major holidays and think about things bigger than myself and in connection to the broader universe on occasion. I often say I worship at the "church of summer in Maine." Either way, I am giving things up for Lent. Mostly because I think it is probably a good practice to deprive myself of something every so often and think about my place in the world each time I miss what I've given up. I might get laughed off the stage if most of my friends heard me say "it is probably a good practice to deprive myself every so often." Laugh away, kids.

I'm giving up the following:

1. Eating candy from the jar on our legal secretary's desk. This is something I do on just about a daily basis. Go visit my Dad in the main office, walk by S's desk, snag one or two or three hershey's kisses. Repeat. Putting a stop to this habit cold turkey will aid in my 30 by 30 quest and each time I reach for that jar out of habit and stop myself, I'll give a little thanks for all that I've got.

2. Complaining about having four cats. I have two kittens. Two adorable, "free" kittens for whom yesterday I just shelled out $247.00 to make them both gender neutral. There goes that plane ticket to Texas I needed for a wedding in May! (more on weddings in a future post. I have been to 9 in 18 months. I have 4 more that I know of between now and September!) In any case, TT also has two cats. When he moved in, I said originally said no to the extra cats. They stayed with his mom for awhile. But she got tired of them, having 3 of her own, and I am not going to be responsible for making TT lose his pets for good. So, like the Brady Bunch of cat families, we got two more. Now there are four felines running around the farm house often making me question whether or not I am officially a creepy cat lady which in turn makes me somewhat furious because if I am aware of the fact that having 4 cats makes me a creepy cat lady, and I am often not fond of having 4 cats, than I am not a creepy cat lady! Le sigh. They are really all quite lovely. They are affectionate. They don't destroy the furniture. Individually, I'm a big fan. It is when they make their presence known all at once that I start to make noises. Annoyed noises to TT. Which really isn't entirely fair because I did accept them all. So now after this long vent in writing, I am going to make the Lenten season effort of shutting my trap on the subject. Maybe if I stop lambasting their existence, I'll accept the little buggers and embrace the whole cat lady thing.