Good bye, Vanilla Chai. Hello, Lent.

Well, it's that time of year again when most Catholics (practicing or not) and even some non-Catholics decide to give up their most valued obsessions or some habit of sin all for the Lenten season.   I'm not sure what got into me this year, but for some odd reason I decided to go all out....and, ahem, I'm totally failing. 

We are only a week into it and I've already broke all but one of my sacrifices...this is killing me! 

When I say "all out", I mean "ALL OUT"!   Call it growing up; call it guilt; call it I must really be in need of God's help; call it sucking up, but whatever you call it I obviously have overshot my abilities!  Let me describe... so for this year, my Lenten sacrifices include:

Giving up swearing:  Which I don't really do a whole lot or at least not on a consistently bad basis, but every now and then a poor-choice word slips out of my mouth.   I give this up every year though so I figured why not this year too!  If nothing else, "giving up" swearing at least makes me more aware of when I do swear so that has to be good, right?!  I mean, awareness is the first step in most healing processes...I think!   

Tally: Lent 0, Failure 1

Giving up texting and checking facebook while driving:  Ok...I hate to admit it, but totally do it and pretend that I don't.  My excuse (ahem, a really good one btw) is that I sit in traffic for over an hour round trip and so I get really bored!  Usually, I end up saying to myself that I'll just read/write a text or check facebook while I'm at a complete stop in the middle of the highway with 100% intentions to stop as soon as I start driving again.  BUT...then I'm usually smack dab in the middle of something and no matter how hard I try to wait to finish until I stop again, I just can't!  

Tally:  Lent 0, Failure 2

Giving up being negative at work:  Why I even attempted this one is beyond me!  The way things are going right now and the fact that everybody, literally everybody, is negative at work right now I seriously just set myself up for failure.

Tally:  Lent 0, Failure 3 

Giving up my all-so-cherished vanilla chai lattes from Starbucks:  Alright, this sacrifice is the one that is by far the hardest for me, but I am proud to say that it is also the one that I have not failed at!  Wahoo, go me!!!  But, that doesn't mean things have gone smoothly for me... 

First, this week I decided to make a very good effort to be to work on time (7:30 a.m.)...and by "I decided" I mean "my boss said we had to be to work on time this week"...and so I've been having to get out of my wonderfully, comfortable bed even earlier in the mornings which in turn means I'm even more tired than usual.  In fact, this morning I was so tired that despite that I've been shaving my legs for ohhhhh say 18 years or so of my life, I somehow happened to shave right over my finger and took a chunk out of my fingernail!  Ouch!

I'm only telling you this because any other time of year if I were this tired, I'd be all over a vanilla chai...even if it made me late to work to stop by Starbucks and grab one!  Not to mention, now my finger hurts and you never really realize how much you use one particular finger until you get a sharp shooting pain in it every time you use it....and just for that I think I deserve a vanilla chai for my pain and suffering!  Awe, Lent!

Second, playing off the fact that I'm getting up earlier, and therefore, extremely tired when I get to work at 7:30 a.m. with no vanilla chai to help me, I've ended up indulging in a cup of coffee every morning.  Yuck!!!  And not only do I NOT like coffee, the coffee at work is so strong I'm pretty sure you could get a caffeine-high just from smelling it so I'm sure you can only imagine how it tastes.  To try and mask this wonderful taste, I end up using 7-8 (sometimes more) of these little creamers:

Although these little creamers have been a lifesaver, I'm sure they can't be that healthy for you! So now not only have I picked up an even worse (read: more caffeinated, and therefore, probably more addicting) habit than drinking vanilla chai, but they are also probably way more fattening than my "nonfat" vanilla chai.

So to sum this sacrifice up - my success has definitely helped my tally some, but overall I've probably just made things worse for myself.  (We aren't going to count that though, so....)

Tally:  Lent 1, Failure 3

Joining a bible study:  Ok...and last, but not least...just to bump up the tally a little more...I also decided to take on one thing for Lent this year.  I decided to join a bible study. This one I also am doing!  So I guess that makes two of my "commitments"  (we will call them since this one doesn't qualify as a sacrifice) not yet broken!

Tally:  Lent 2, Failure 3

Only 5 weeks and 3 days to go.  Oh, gosh, wish me luck!