Loophole

Mar 15, 2008 - 10:17 AM PST

We are now in the midst of Lent. In Christian religions, Lent is a period of 40 days before Easter. The 40 days is represents the time Jesus was in the desert and tempted by Satan. During this period, some people will not eat meat on Fridays (fish is okay though) and will sometimes deprive themselves of a vice or something they value for 40 days, in an attempt to simulate being tempted by the devil.

That’s the background on that….

Last week, I ran into a couple Lent-related oddities. First, I know that Lent has nothing to do with eating healthy. Not a single thing. But I find it strange that people eat Long John Silver’s fast food on Friday. I have no basis for this…. I just find it weird.

The next one kind of goes along with that – A woman asked me if I thought that SubWay was fast food. I said “yes.” I don’t think that fast food has to equal grease, or burgers… I mean, if you get a salad at McDonald’s, that’s still fast food. I essentially said that if after you order they ask “for here or to go?” then it’s fast food. So then she asked me about if pizza was fast food. I actually said “no” on this one. I put it in the category of “take out.” It does take 30 minutes, and you can have it delivered right to you – but, technically, I don’t think it’s fast food. Then I asked “why?”

She had given up fast food for Lent and was looking for loopholes. That’s the terminology she used…”loopholes.” I looked at her and simply said “yeah, because that’s what Lent is about. Loopholes.”

I don’t participate in these practices during Lent, and it doesn’t make a difference to me if people do or not - but I just think that if you are going to do it, you should do it all the way, and not try to find ways around the sacrifices you decided to make to make them not so much sacrifices. That’s just me.

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Had a weird dream the other night – I usually don’t like to write about dreams because of the weird translation and the memory gaps, but this one was vivid.

Rachael and I were having a party in an apartment. We were having this party in order to watch Rachael on TV in some singing competition (a la American Idol). The show, in true reality show fashion, continued to try to build suspense (through the whole dream). The party we were having was themed “The Price is Right.” I’m not sure how you throw a “Price is Right” themed party, but we did. However, I will say that Bob Barker showed up. He kept on singing the praises of Apple, and wondering if I could take him to an Apple store. I told him, that there are no Apple stores in WV. I then walked to the deck (the TV show still building suspense), and Rachael came in from the deck saying that they were making fun of the way I walked. We then proceeded to make out on the floor. While we were doing that some guy walked up to us, thanked us, and gave us his plates. I woke up before I could find out if Rach won.