Jersey #9: Kentucky's Journey

Here's the deal - I'm Catholic. And apparently, Catholics do this thing called lent. You know, that thing where on one random tuesday girls in Louisiana show their boobs for beads, followed the next day by some weird ritual where ppl run around with black stuff on their foreheads and propose to "give up" something until Easter. Well, call me a bad Catholic, but I've never given up anything. My parents seem to always give up a food - one year it was ice cream, one year popcorn...stuff like that. My friends - even my non-Catholic friends - always seemed to find something to give up as well.

Normally, I balked at the idea because I thought the whole concept of their "sacrifice" was kind of cheesy. I mean, c'mon - popcorn? And the whole idea that you can't eat meat on fridays, but then churches filled with fatties chow down on delicious fried fish instead...is that REALLY a sacrifice? And I bet all the fish are swimming around wondering..."okay, so I'm not a plant. But apparently I'm not an animal either!?!". Catholics of the world, I have an announcement to make: FISH IS MEAT!!! They are swimming, breathing, little creatures. They look like animals, they act like animals, and when you kill them, cook them, and eat them, they TASTE like animals. Fish is meat, so you can't give up "meat" and eat fish instead. Have a get-together with macaroni salad and PB&J sandwiches if you want - but don't have fish and say you are giving up "meat". Maybe say you're giving up "land animals" if that makes you feel better...but seriously - Fish is meat. Amen.


Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I would like to get to my real point. Having finally gotten over my bitterness of the fish issue, I decided that this year I would actually attempt to give up something. But what? I haven't been drinking at all, and if I do, it would be after our alumni game which is pretty much the funnest thing in the world...so that's a no go. I already don't drink pop, the only sweets I have serve as my once a week treat.............okay - foods and beverages seem to be off the table. Someone last night suggested that instead of giving something up perhaps I should "add" something - like volunteer time...but I really don't have much time as it is...

So then I got to thinking - what is it that takes up my time that I don't ABSOLUTELY need. The dreaded answer - Television. Especially on the weekends, that sucker draws me in and suctions my ass to the couch for hours on end. It's also the main reason that I don't get my reading done for classes, and a contributer to staying up too late at night.......but I LOVE tv. I mean, Real World, ESPN, Fox News, Late Shows, Dr. Phil, Man vs. Wild, the History Channel....it's just all so amazing. And sometimes, you just need some background noise, you know? Yet, mi amor for television proves that it is the perfect sacricial lamb for this lenten season, and I'm betting giving it up will free up a lot of extra time for things like reading, cleaning, writing, and spending time with Brutus. Yes. It is decided - tv (or at least most of it) must go.

Here is my official proposal which has gone into effect as of this morning: I am allowed one show per week - Grey's Anatomy. To prevent myself from being tempted to watch other things, I am actually returning my digital cable box today (subscription $50 a month) and downgrading to the $12 per month basic cable (22 crappy channels). HOWEVER - I just ordered Setanta Sports on the ITVN internet-based channel subscription thing which should arrive in a couple of days. I will allow myself to watch as much rugby as desired, because hey, that's educational!!!

So basically, I'm not giving up tv, I'm giving up cable. If I succeed in only watching that one show per week - so 1 hour of cable television - that's probably down from about 45+ hours per week. Add in a few hours per week of rugby games, and I'll still have about 40 hours of time that will now be entirely free of the boob tube. What will I do with that time?? Hmmm.....blog maybe?? haha...hopefully I'll read and spend more time with my puppy. Time will tell....

At any rate - good luck with all your lenten sacrifices and whatnot. I'll let you know how the new anti-cable Kentucky is doing in a few days...


And P.S......Fish Is Meat - spread the word.