TGIF

Today is a Friday during Lent, and if I were still a practicing Catholic, I'd be suffering through yet another fish dinner. But I'm not, so it's all the carne I can eat for me.

(Sidenote: one time I asked a server in a restaurant which she preferred, their chicken sandwich or hamburger. Her disdainful response? "I don't eat flesh." I always flash back to that when presented with vegetarians.)

I never really got into the whole religion thing. We went to public schools growing up, but our mom forced us to go to CCD while we were in elementary school. For those of you who aren't former Catholics, CCD is the Church's version of Bible school. It takes place on Saturday mornings, which really chapped my hide as a kid. I mean, who wouldn't be pissed about having to give up their Saturday morning cartoons? Especially since this was the time when the Smurfs had been recently unleashed to the English-speaking world.

As we got older, CCD changed to confirmation classes. Maybe it was just that I went to a particularly unorganized church, but to this day, I'm still not sure what the point of confirmation is. I can gather that it's something to do with being an adult in the eyes of the Church, but we never learned anything in particular about the religion or indeed anything god-related. We did get loads of "Christian youth" lessons crammed down our throats, though.

When I went away to college, I decided that that would be a good time to stop the facade. So I announced to my mom that I would no longer be going to church. She wasn't happy about it, but she realized it wasn't like she could put a gun to my head.

I don't really think about religion much. I mean, I'm happy if it works for some people, but personally it hasn't been a very big part of my life. The only time I've stepped foot in a church in years has been only while sightseeing abroad.

But lately I've been getting into "Joan of Arcadia," which is on at a terrible time (Friday nights) but has an interesting take on religion. The concept is that she and only she is visited by various incarnations of god, who asks her to do various tasks. There's a lot of general philosophy involved about ways to look at the world and options we have in interacting with others. Yes, I know, insert snide comment here about how it takes primetime network TV to get me thinking. It's a good show, at any rate, and worth checking out.

As for me, though, I don't think I'll be going back to the Church any time soon. I really hate giving things up for Lent. And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree on this one. This year, my mom announced to my dad that she gave up chocolate for Lent. He, being the anal-retentive engineer that he is, had already gotten her a VD gift of a YUUUGE chocolate heart. Thinking quickly, my mom told him that you were allowed to have whatever you gave up for Lent on Sundays. My dad, being an Episcopalian, actually believed her. When I confronted mom on it, she hissed, "Do. Not. Tell. Him. Otherwise."