'Tis the Season for Lots of Rules

I love Lent. Why? Because it’s six weeks of rules! My fave rule? No meat on Friday. It’s kinda like "No baths on Fridays" but this time the purpose is to help fishermen. (And I’m pretty sure Luby’s is in on it too.)

Frank never gets into Lent but he says this year he’s going to follow this “No meat on Friday” policy. This will be hard because every Friday he gets this huge, beefy taco salad at work. It must be big because he says he can’t even eat it all AND he’s never hungry for dinner when he gets home. This is going to be the ultimate sacrifice.

So what am I giving up for Lent? Well, nothing really. I’m tired of giving up things I put into my mouth. It’s like I say I’m doing it for Jesus but really I just want a toned tummy. My past sacrifices:

One year I gave up soda and I haven’t been a soda drinker since.
One year I gave up meat and now I finally eat vegetables.
Last year I gave up alcohol and well, that one didn’t really stick after Easter.

I feel I’ve already given up the tough stuff. The only thing I haven’t conquered is TV and you already know where that discussion ended up. So I guess we’ll stick to the “No TV on Wednesday" rule for Lent. But that will have to start next week because last night we did watch a Curb. We had to; we’re so behind! God will understand. I hear he's very forgiving.

Oh, and I also haven’t conquered chocolate but again, that’s something I put into my mouth. Plus, I have a freezer full of Vitatops, Thin Mints and fiber cookies—what could I do?

But just because we’re not giving up anything for Lent doesn’t mean we can’t participate in all the other fun Catholic activities: we’ll do the Stations of the Cross, go to confession (better jot down that Wednesday night TV slip-up), feed some homeless people and we may even do one of those Friday fish fries at church. Yep, being Catholic during Lent is fun. Only downside? They still like you to take baths on Fridays.