Living Like Lent

Hehehe...
Forgive my dark, brown-sugar chuckles from the corner. d just reminded me that there's more to this time off than a new series of Doctor Who starting tomorrow.
"Can't wait for Easter Sunday," she almost-growled, as I flopped sweatily off the bike after a tough fifteen miles.
"Whyzzat?" I gasped, picking my sweat-damp underwear out of my several cheesy folds.
"End of Lent," she grinned. "I gave up creme caramels...for Lent."
Oh yeah. I swear I did know that, but as you'll have noticed by now, I'm nothing if not huuuuuugely self-revolving.
"Aww...cool," I said. "Welcome...welcome to this suck-ass world of self-denial."
To her credit, she didn't throw anything at me.

In fairness, I wasn't taking the piss out of d. More, it was a sudden slap upside the head. Lent is 40 days of self-denial, whether you do it for religious reasons, or as an exercise in personal strength. It occurred to me that the last time I remembered creme caramels being in this house was the night I sniffed the Boobies of Doom (scroll through the entries, you won't miss that one!). That means I've been writing this blog longer than Lent. I had to blink at that realisation. I'm living la vida lenta...

And then of course, once I'd realised that, the thought occurred to me that people give up particular, specific things for Lent. Creme caramels...chocolate...smoking, whatever...I'd done a year of no desserts before we even began this fun-fest. A year of no fizzy drinks, which once were pretty much the only things I drank. I rediscovered the joy of coffee, and have now had to give that up too. A tiny, stupid part of me rose up and yelled "You wanna piece of me, o-givers-up-of-stuff-for-Lent!" But it died quickly, and then, just as quickly, I felt like a heel.

Because yeah, did this, did that, yadda yadda yadda...but as any of you who read d's blog will know (and if you don't, what the Hell do you do online? Go here now!), she's recently been diagnosed as diabetic. At the moment, it's not having too much of an impact on her, and as I did for a good solid 15 years, she's not denying herself sweet things en masse - though she's being sensible, continuing to lose weight, and evidently, giving up particular sweet things for Lent.

The point, really, is that I cannot, and will not, lie to any of you about this; as far as I personally am concerned, there is no correlation between giving things up and feeling better, or happier, or even particularly healthier. It might, as things go further, for all I know - but as yet, I can honestly say I was a happier human being when I wasn't denying myself all the things that I've grown to enjoy. So living like Lent is ONLY better because technically, running the numbers, you'll probably live longer, and with less in terms of health issues. But fun? No. And so, any raving and posturing and look-at-meing I would want to do is made mute and somehow shameful.

So yay for you, all you givers-up-of-stuff-for-Lent. Not long to go now. Stand by your fridges...