Ash Wednesday Chick Bits

Joyeaux Ash Wednesday blog readers. :)

This year, though it is not practiced in my religious denomination of choice, I am observing the season of lent. My motives for this are not as much "religious" as they are perhaps spiritual.
I believe the saying "NO" to oneself is the greatest thing that separates humanity from the rest of the species on Earth.

Apparently God thinks it's pretty important, too- for self-control is a fruit of the spirit; and yes I would say that saying "no" to yourself is what self-control is all about.
Growing up I thought the whole concept pretty much sucked, but as I get older I see the wisdom of it. Just look on any area of your life where you might indulge yourself a little too much and tell me that area isn't particularly chaotic, and not making your life suck as a result.

If I keep allowing myself to spend money I have none when I truly need it.
If I keep sneaking extra snacks, I become overweight and look down on myself as a result.
If I say yes to a guy who I know has poor character but I just want the temporary "feel good" high a budding romance brings, I learn heartache, betrayal, and find myself in a pretty beat up, depressed, and poor state.

So for lent I have given up meat. I will eat fish- which I consider a meat but a meat of the sea. I'm giving up the meat of the land- most notably my beloved chicken. I will learn to be more creative and healthy in my eating habits- maybe- and it will help me sharpen my ability for self-control---and believe me I need all the help I can get in that area.
I'm pretty darn permissive.
---------------------------------

Last night I went to the MN Wild vs Detroit Red Wings game. My sister decided to give her suite tickets to her fiance and his brother because she thought the suites were completely enclosed. When she discovered otherwise she was pretty bummed. I think we had the better view of the arena as a whole though from our upper deck seats.

The Wild lost 3-2 in overtime. I was a good game. The Wild played well. I finally bought a jersey (that makes me look prego) and some PJ bottoms. GO WILD!

---------------------------------
Work has been incredibly boring for me lately. There's no challenge and when something remotely out of routine requiring a little thought comes around, I find myself too apathetic and lazy by the afternoon to tackle it.....I digress a bit here.

Yesterday I left early to try and buy a Wild jersey before the game. The store in Maplewood mall was still there but the gate was down and the lights were off.

So I decided to continue on and prebowl............... a 149, 201, 165. The first game I couldn't pick anything up. My ball took off hard to the right.
The 201 tore open the blister/callous I have between my thumb and index finger.....but I played thru the pain to finish out and not too badly.

Today I am forcing myself to stay at my desk but am going to flip thru some recipes to find yummy non-meat stuff and I hope to work on some long overdue bowling paperwork.

-------------------------------------------

I took a quiz mentioned on Ochuk's blog to see which presidential candidtate my views were most aligned with.

It came up with Mike Gavel-----------WHO????!!!!
Guess I've missed out on that guy. Is he even still running?

Second place was a tie between Hillary and Huckabee. HMMMMM that doesn't help me.
I hear there was record caucus turn out. let me tell you, going to the Wild Game was the better decision.

-------------------------------------------
For the most part, I've been handling the end of a very close friendship much better than I thought. I think a big part of me is still in denial and so angry I don't want to waste tears over it, but I hear that crying is supposed to help in the whole grieving process because it demonstrates that whatever we're crying about really matters to us.

Ok- but is it worth it? I feel like crying most of the time anyway. I'm emotional.
I am woman- hear me cry.

But that doesn't mean I'm not strong. Anyway, I face the possibility of seeing this person (in a public place) on Friday and don't know how I'm going to react.

By and by I'm starting to feel the subtle creep of loneliness ebb it's way toward me.

The closing of the bar I frequent to sing karoake this weekend isn't helping combat the loneliness any either. As for finding a new venue for singing, the only one close to me I would want to go to is frequented by the friend I'm no longer friends with. So that's out.

Life really sucks sometimes. I hate that it's this way. Bring on the armageddon and let's just get this all over with as soon as possible, please.

-----------------------------------------------
The groundhog "Phil" saw his shadow last Saturday. Only 6 more weeks of winter. Oh good, 'cause I thought we might -you know- get snow through April or something. I'm glad groundhogs are around to tell us these things.

Incidentally I'll be keeping my gloves and car scraper handy 'til about June.

-----------------------------------------------
I'm very much looking forward to this year's release of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian".

----------------------------------------------

Guess that's about it. It is only Wednesday after all.

Ever notice how many songs there are about Mondays and how they're "Manic" or "can't trust that day"? And how many there are about Fridays with gettin' paychecks and partying and fun?

No one writes about Tuesday-Thursday. Huh.