What to give up for Lent?

Today is the first day of Lent. I’m trying to decide what to give up, if anything. The purpose of giving up something for Lent I think has something to do with identifying with the suffering of Christ, although I wonder if giving up french fries or chocolate really helps me do that. I have a few brave friends who gave up Facebook for lent (and perhaps email?) which I can hardly imagine. My friends live in my computer, I think I would be quite lost without it. Perhaps that’s closer to the intended meaning but I can’t quite imagine myself doing that at the moment. I briefly considered giving up coffee but then thought that that was just too much sacrifice for my life too.

Last year I tried giving up something esoteric. I forget how exactly I worded it but it was something along the lines of giving up negative thoughts about myself. I failed miserably.

I have a friend who was considering trying to eat on $1 a day for Lent, but I really don’t think that would work for me. And I can’t fast because of blood sugar issues. I also toyed with the idea of giving up meat for Lent, but I’m not sure that’s something I want to impose on my husband and since I do all the cooking that would be required.

The best idea I’ve had so far is giving up saying yes to things I’m not completely and totally gung-ho about. However, since I have a church commitment almost every weekend from now until Easter (and I’m honestly not gung-ho about all of them) I can’t figure out whether that would mean I should back out of some, or just not say yes to anything new (which would be much easier because I’m already up to my eyebrows).

What do my esteemed and worthy blog readers think? Should I give something up? What should it be? What have you given up?

Oh and for fun with LOLcats and Lent click here (the comments are especially interesting)
PS I am not the “Mennocat” mentioned in the comments.

#34 New Restaurant: Napoli

Last week my friend Rachel asked me if there was another new restaurant I’d like to try and if I’d like her company for lunch. We decided to go to Napoli, a restaurant on the south-ish end of town. One of my co-workers goes there regularly with a group of women from church. Napoli, as you might have guessed is Italian. It must have been something else (like maybe a fast food joint) before. There are two entrances and a little pick-up window where you pay and order food to go.

The most daunting task about a new restaurant is looking over the menu. Napoli’s menu is huge, several pages of pastas, pizza and other italian goodies. In addition there were signs posted on the wall that reminded customers that they had new wrap sandwiches (as if we needed any more choices). I finally decided on manicoti and Rachel decided on baked ziti. (When trying a new restaurant I usually don’t order something new. Generally one new experience is about all I can handle at one time.)

The lunch menu, which is very reasonably priced, includes salad and bread, hot from the oven. It was great. My manicoti appeared to be homemade, because unlike the store-bought tube pasta it was hand-rolled pancake shaped pasta. It was excellent. Rachel and I both agreed that when we first got our meals we intended to take half home, but we enjoyed the food so much neither of us did.

Overall, this was an excellent dining experience. Dinner appeared to be a little more expensive, but lunch was an excellent meal for a very good price.

25 Random Things List

For people who read this but don’t have Facebook, this is a thing that’s going around Facebook lately. It’s kind of like the Facebook version of a chain letter, but somehow most people are less annoyed by it than a chain letter. Anyway, the idea is that you come up with 25 random things about yourself and then you tag 25 people and they have to do it to. So here we are, my 25 things:
1. My minimum number of tags before I would do this meme was 3. I reached it this morning. Thanks Cindy.
2. I love lists. Love. Love. Love.
3. I can judge my stress level by the number of lists I have made (particularly if they are of the same things) 1 list = Laura is happy; 2 lists = Laura is a little too busy; 3 lists= Laura might need some help; 4 + lists= Look out! Laura is verging on crazy.
4. I read cookbooks for fun. My favorites are those with photos and the More With Less series.
5. I have given into peer pressure and developed these three addictions: Coffee, LOLcats and Dr Who (and other sci-fi). Without Kari and Amy I would not be addicted to any of these.
6. I am almost completely unable to exercise on my own. I need a person or a class that “expects” me be there. This is the only reason I would own a dog… because a dog would expect me to walk him.
7. My cat is my greatest source of comfort and entertainment. Every bad day must end with my cat or I am a sad person indeed.
8. I used to have an imaginary persona (not an imaginary friend). As this imaginary persona my name was Sara (sometimes with an H) I now have 4 friends named Sara(h). Weird, huh?
9. I love a bargain. In fact, I am incapable of buying clothing full price.
10. My favorite chocolate in the world is called Xocolatl from Dagoba. It is dark chocolate with chili’s and cocoa nibs.
11. Three years ago I started taking ballet and worship dance classes. Dance is now ingrained in my spirituality.
12. I don’t know what I would do without my cell phone and my computer. Since so many of my friends live somewhere else these feel like lifelines.
13. I think that when a technology becomes a verb (i.e. “facebook me” or “google it”) everyone should learn how to use it, even old fogies.
14. I have watched the second Lord of the Rings movie so many times I can quote the whole thing. It’s my favorite of the three. (Oh and this is another addiction I got from Kari and Amy)
15. If given the choice between going out and staying in I choose staying in, every time.
16. I have anxiety induced insomnia.
17. If my kitchen is clean I feel better about my life. The rest of the house doesn’t matter nearly as much as the kitchen.
18. I have a very scary sense of intuition that borders on ESP. I have to control it or it controls me.
19. I have had one close friend move away (or I’ve moved away from them) almost every year since college. It’s sad.
20. I have a list of 101 things I want to do in 1001 days on my blog which is www.simplestorygirl.wordpress.com
21. It is my secret ambition to write a best seller. I don’t think its going to happen, but one can always dream.
22. Sunshine and mountains are two important reasons I moved to Virginia. They are also two reasons I stay.
23. Without my husband my world would be a lot smaller and more homogeneous.
24. I dream of being a professor but don’t think I have the time, energy or ambition for doctoral work.
25. I didn’t think I would be able to find enough semi-interesting things about me to complete this list.

I love my cat but…

Those of you who know me know how much I love my cat. She’s my baby. And she’s good training for eventual parenthood (maybe more in a future post) I love my cat but tonight, when I wanted to go for a walk… I wished I had a dog.

Unintentionally completing #4 “Eat a meal in a sit down restaurant alone”

I was not planning on completing any of my 101 things last night. In fact, after I put #4 on my list I was wondering why it was on there at all. I guess when I wrote it down I had some vague ideas about proving to myself that I could do something that was potentially embarrassing and might draw attention to myself (two things I hate).  I don’t know why I thought that eating alone would do these things. I think sometimes my overactive imagination (or my over-developed sense of intuition) makes me think that others pay more attention to me than is actually true. In fact, I think that the only people who perhaps noticed that I was alone were the waitresses (who were especially nice to me). I am also especially sensitive to being alone for some reason… so maybe this was a good stretching exercise for me. So here’s what happened…

I was running errands and shopping yesterday and my last errand was to take our Christmas money to the bank.  I was counting it before I went in and apparently wasn’t paying attention to my keys. I definitely remember hitting the lock button on my car but I went into the bank to deposit the money. When I was walking out I did my little “find the keys” dance that involves checking all my pockets and my purse and discovered they were not there. So I thought, “Okay, I must have left them in the car.” I wasn’t panicked yet, because I didn’t remember that I had locked the car. So I got to the car… was relieved to see the keys in the ignition… and then I tried the door. It was locked. In a bout of hope I tried another door. All locked. As I said I hit the lock button. Then I realized several things 1) it was only about 5 and Brandon (who has the other set of car keys) wouldn’t close the store until 7. 2) It was kind of chilly, luckily not the biting cold of a few nights ago, but still cold enough that I was going to have to find something to do for a few hours 3) Even though I was only a quarter mile from my house I was also locked out there too because my house key is on the same ring and we don’t hide a key outside anymore. (this did not stop me from walking to my house to check to see if I had happened too leave the door unlocked… I hadn’t) So… after walking to my house, I walked back to the plaza with the bank and tried to figure out what to do. The plaza has a grocery store, a movie store, a couple fast food restaurants and Francesco’s, a sit down Italian restaurant. I wandered around the movie store for a few minutes and then decided the best thing to do to kill time was to eat somewhere.

Now as an aside, I have to say that I was not in the mood for a growing experience. I had spent all afternoon calling nearly all my friends trying to find someone to hang out with me. And everyone was busy or out of town. It was sad. My husband had plans with some of his friends and so I was looking at a long evening alone with my cat, which under some circumstances would have been fine, but tonight I was not in the mood. All of this is to say that I nearly chickened out twice before going into the restaurant and asking for a table for one. In fact I was actually in the fast food place before I decided to stop being so stupid and just do it.  (Also, I was really in the mood for a turkey sub with fries, one of my favorite Francesco’s meals)

So I did it. And here is what I learned…

1. It was kind of boring. Luckily Francesco’s has a tv so I could stare at it for entertainment. Unluckily it was across the room and I was unable to read the closed caption.
2. I like watching people. I liked watching the old couple finish their glasses of wine in silence. I like watching the family with three little boys negotiate dinner out. I liked watching the guy who was meeting a woman who was late (or maybe she got lost).
3. Almost no one paid any attention to me, except maybe the waitress who smiled at me more politely than normal.
4. Once I got over myself I was fine, even if I little bored.
5. After I had finished eating I felt guilty about taking up table space when there were people waiting. I think more guilty than normal.

So that was it. My adventure for the evening. After I finished eating I went to the movie store again. Got some of my favorite movies, and finally got a text from a friend who said she would watch Dr Who with me online. (This is probably a topic for another post… how I manage to watch movies with my friend in Indiana). So this is how I unintentionally completed number 4. And it wasn’t so bad.

#47 Try a new food- and other Christmas memories

I tried a new food at Christmas. Christmas is usually a time for old familiars, but Brandon’s sister created a gourmet meal for us including filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. And as an appetizer she bought sushi from Whole foods, Spicy Shrimp wrapped in brown rice (the shrimp was cooked). It was excellent! And it allowed me to cross something off my list, a double bonus!

Other Christmas memories include: putting together the same five piece puzzle with my niece about 100 times. I bought her a new one for Christmas. And then there was my Christmas present from my brother… 6 lbs of deer bologna, I don’t know how many lbs of “deer sticks” (read: slim jims made from deer. ) And 6 roasts and 12 steaks (all also from the same deer). I would cross off the “find a source of locally raised meat” from my list, but I’m not sure how Ohio deer is “local.” By the way, anyone reading this who would like a ring of deer bologna, please let me know. I won’t eat that much bologna ever. Really. But I’m excited that I likely won’t have to buy meat (except ground beef) all year long. I also got to see my bff’s from college. (yay!) and make cookies and candy with four cousins, two aunts and my grandma. Ain’t Christmas grand!

Rachel was right….

hats are hard. (see comment on below post if you’re confused) So I attempted a hat, using some yarn I found at Big Lots. And it was way to big, unfortunately I didn’t realize until I had spent about an hour or so on it. So I think I’m going to take it apart and try a scarf. In the meantime however my cat found a use for it. But it’s a bit too small for a cat basket, despite Sylvia’s attempt.

Cat in a Hat

#17- Learn to Crochet

Okay, I’m not there yet. I am not at the place where I can crochet beautiful blankets like my friend Andrea. But I’m getting there, very slowly. About 12 years ago my grandma taught me how to make “granny squares.” That was basically the extent of my crochet knowledge, actually, it still is, but I’m trying something new. Given the horrible economy, the lack of people buying furniture and the bills (oh the bills). I decided that this will be a “get creative” Christmas.
One of my favorite “homemade” gifts is those little scrubby pad things that people knit or crochet. So I decided to try to make some. I found a pattern online for crocheted ones, and so I decided to give it a try. (Friends and family who are reading this, look for scrubby pads in your Christmas present, that is unless I get tired of making them.)

Challenge number 1 was remembering how to do a double crochet. After some practice it came back (since it is the featured stitch in a granny square). Challenge number 2 was figuring out what the things are made out of. You’ll never guess. They’re made out of nylon net! So now, in addition to figuring out how to crochet, I”m figuring out how to crochet with strips of nylon. It’s a new level of challenge, which is why I think I can say that I am learning to crochet, even though I haven’t learned any new stitches.

Since I started this post (this is one of those posts that has lingered in my draft box for a while) I have gradually expanded my crochet skills to include dish cloths and cat toys. Well the cat toys were more a way to practice other skills, but they are quite useful. My cat loves her newly crocheted round things that she chases all over the house. She also loves to eat the yarn so I have to make sure that whatever dangly thingys the yarn rounds have on them is thick enough that she won’t eat it completely off. (This has already happened with a few of her new toys but she hasn’t gotten sick yet, so apparently cotton yarn is digestible for cats) Anyway, depending on whether I get all the other crochet stuff done I think the next project might be a couple of hats and/or a scarf. We’ll have to see if I get all the scrubbies and dish cloths done first though.

What I’m thankful for

In the general population the fall holidays seem to be overshadowed by Christmas. There were Christmas decorations in the stores before Halloween this year. I think on an individual level people still remember thanksgiving and at least use it as an excuse to eat a lot of food and spend time with family. Thanks to my friend Rachel, who was blogging the 12 days of Thanksgiving, I probably have focused more on what I’m thankful for this year than other years, but in case it spurs you to think about what your thankful for, here’s my list. (This is not exhaustive, its just what has occurred to me at this moment)

1. The obvious, friends and family, without whom my life would be quite poor indeed.
2. My cat, who is currently curled up like a furry gray cushion next to me.
3. Technology, which allows me to text my family and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving, have instant message conversations with friends far away, and email my parents.
4. Health. I recently had a bout with a nasty cold and while it’s not completely gone, I will not take the ability to breath through my nose for granted for a while.
5. Friends who invited us join their family for Thanksgiving. Its much more fun with 9 people around a table totally laden with food.
6. My church that is allowing me to explore, create and experiment with worship.
7. Good coffee. Enough said.
8. That the police officer who pulled me over for expired plates on Wednesday didn’t feel the need to also cite me for not having a city sticker.
9. Sunshine. I remember living in a state where we saw the sun maybe 4 times all winter. I love Virginia.
10. Leftovers, which I will be eating for several days, thanks to the generous portions of food that everyone made yesterday.

In this 10 minutes, these are at least 10 things I’m thankful for.

#84 Vote in an Election

Like millions of other young voters this year was the first time I participated in the political process. This is actually the 3rd presidential election I could have voted in (does this mean I’m not a young voter anymore?) but I think I was disillusioned before I even started because the first election I could have voted in was decided by a judge (and I’m sorry to admit that the candidate I probably would have voted for won and then royally screwed up the country).

This morning is one of the first times I can remember being proud of my country. We are finally joining the rest of the world in the 21st century where race, age and upbringing do not keep you out of the political process. However, with all of that said, “my” candidate won. And I wonder how much of the pride is nascent competitiveness. I’m afraid sometimes that I have fallen into the trap of binaries. I ended up on the winning side, instead of understanding that winning hasn’t happened yet. Winning will happen when we get ourselves out of the ridiculous mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. And that’s going to take all of us, not just the president.