Fat Tuesday

February 16th

Oh goodness! I just chowed down on a wonderful peanut butter and chocolate rice crispie treat from good ol' Sweet Mandy B's. It just so happens this fabulous little bakery is diagonal from my place of residence. President Obama sent cupcakes from there to Joe Biden for his birthday! What a sweetheart! If only he'd answer worldly problems with cupcakes. Might not prove to be ultimately effective, but it might make things a little sweeter.

But that is neither here nor there, because today is a day to flash men for beads and be a glutton. Only kidding! And have you seen that documentary about how the beads are made? That whole cycle is totally violent and especially manipulative of female workers. But, I chose to be a bit of a glutton today. For some reason or another I have had goosebumps for days on end. Maybe I have a fever? I'm not really sure, but I hate being cold. That whole cold hands warm heart thing is not panning out for me, because I'm uncomfortable and it's making me cranky. As are my readings about women in factories and upsetting aspects of the lives of teenage girls. Why am I getting my masters in women's and gender studies again? Oh, that's right! To one day hold hands, and hold them tenderly and tightly. My hands are learning and hopefully all this writing and book holding will help them better connect with other hands. So on this note, I'm going to tell you what these hands will be doing for the next 47 days.

For Lent I have decided to do something radical. One year I gave up smoking, and now I am not a smoker aside from the occasional cig. Another year I gave up eating meat, and as a result I have been a vegetarian for about 7 years. So, I'm going into this realizing that this period of time can have lasting imprints on how I do things - no matter how ass backwards it seems ;). This year I decided I was going to only purchase things that came from the earth.

Now, what does that mean? Well, I realized via conversation with my fabulous roomie, Cat - who might I delightfully add is coming on this journey with me, that that excludes quite a few things and that I'd inevitably be a vegan. I've tried being a vegan before, but I'm training for a marathon in the spring and bread and eggs are very good for this runner's soul. So, I'm only purchasing items from self sustaining places. I'm excluding sweets from my diet! Aye! I have such a sweet tooth. I won't be able to go out to eat. Coffee and beer are my going to be the hardest aspects of this, especially because I have to write 3 large papers consisting of about 30 pages by March 19th. I haven't quite decided how the two most fabulous liquids of my life are going to come into play this lent, but I'm sure I'll write about it as I negotiate it. It will also be interesting considering I'm on a limited income. I work at a clothing store, but I haven't been getting a lot of hours recently. Apparently Jan and Feb are the slowest months in retail, and honestly I don't really think I'm the best at this job. Hopefully I can quit soon (don't tell my boss!), but I'd really like to have another job first! I mean who wouldn't? Really, I'd just like to be a farmer. So, I'm starting my lent feeling okay? Confused as to what this actually going to look like. That's okay though - I mean if we knew what everything looked like ahead of time there would be no fun discoveries or challenges. So here's to tomorrow. The first day of many, and for the record Lent technically ends on Good Friday making it 45 days but I'd rather just do this whole thing until Easter. The day after is my younger sister's 21st birthday - so two great celebrations in a row. Can't wait.

Namaste.