Happy Friday folks!  How has your week been?  Smashing?  Full of witty banter, adorable outfits and fancy meals?  Yeah, well, mine either.  Oh wait, I did have a fancy meal at Beretta the other night…  So, one out of three!

Also, I took pictures last weekend to put on the blog of things I was grateful for and… they’re still on my camera.  WTF Chelsea?  (Yes, I chastise myself in the third person.)  Ugh, I’m the worst this week.  The. Worst.

Aside from that though, let’s talk about Lent.  (Like that transition?  There was no transition there.  Zero.)  What, y’all didn’t know I was Catholic?  Well, I’m not.  Ok, I’m not really anymore — but I was raised Catholic (went through confirmation and everything, wha-what?  Give it up for Jesus and St. Clare!  ← She was the saint I chose for my confirmation, ahem, because she’s the patron saint of television.  #SoFreakingHoly)  And while I take issue with many practices of the Catholic church (remember when the pope was against yoga?  WTF indeed.) I generally take part in Lent every year.  For all you sinners* out there (*that’s a joke by the way, so don’t get all offended, please): Lent falls between Ash Wednesday (which is the day after Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday) and Easter Sunday.  It represents the time between when Jesus was crucified and when he was resurrected.  Christians and Catholics generally give up something during these 40 days to remember the sacrifice JC made — giving up his life for the sake of his people.

A few years ago though, rather than giving something up for Lent (giving up cookies during second year of law school the year prior was ROUGH), I decided to resolve to do something for Lent.  (Because, really, does Jesus actually care whether or not I’m eating Sour Patch Kids for 40 days?  I kind of doubt it.  I mean, I basically picture JC looking down at me and being like, “Um, I gave up my life for you; but, you’re right, that is pretty much the same as you giving up chocolate for Lent.  Yeah, pretty much identical, actually.”)

image

Usually my Lent resolution is something along the lines of working out 4x a week (as I fall off the wagon during the winter holidays and generally have trouble getting my act together until Ash Wednesday rolls around).  This year, I’m pleased to say that I got my a%# in gear and was back on the fitness train by the end of January (fist pump for motivation).  So this year, my Lent resolution (my Lentolution, if you will) is to “do stuff” and “say yes more.” ← I’m pretty sure that Jesus thinks this is awesome.

I had decided that 2012 would be my “year of doing” (2011 was the year of responsibility, just FYI), so I’m trying to commit to this mindset for the 40 days of Lent in the hopes that it will cement the idea and practice for the rest of the year.  In case you can’t read my mind, this idea for the “year of doing” came out of last year, when I didn’t have much free time to devote to anything other than our wedding, so a lot of social activities fell by the wayside.  And while I found I had plenty of “legitimate” excuses for skipping out on things (full time job, workouts, Bar Method teacher training, planning a wedding, etc.), when 2012 rolled around I suddenly had a thought — this is all going to change soon.  Friends are growing up, moving away, having babies — pretty soon there won’t be random Wednesday night happy hours, sporadic trips to the snow planned 24 hours in advance, girls weekends in wine country.  We’ll all have real obligations that aren’t so easily rearranged or put on hold (you can’t really press “pause” on a baby, ya know?)  So for the short amount of time that these activities still exist, I’m making more of an effort to say yes to them.  Yes to mid-week drinks with an old friend, yes to out-of-state bachelorette parties where I’ll know no one but the bride, yes to a weekend trip to Chicago — because why not?  We’ll have plenty of time to say no later when there’s kids, mortgages, pets, and bills.  For now, I’m doing my best to say yes to life.

And yes, I will get my act together and post those damn photos from last weekend.  In the meantime, have a great Friday (and weekend!) and maybe think about making your own Lentolution (I should get that trademarked…) or say yes to something!  I haven’t regretted it yet.