Self-denial

My mother is disappointed that I haven't retained any of the important parts of my Catholic heritage - like praying and believing in God (but not so much that I'm bold enough to decapitalise him/her!). It only adds to her confusion that I cling so determinedly to the less important aspects of Catholicism - self-denial, guilt, and hanging Mary icon pictures on the wall.

My favourite bit of self-denial is Lent. It's a million times better than New Year's Resolutions because it only lasts for forty days (and forty nights). Whoop! Anyway, this year I have given up buying stuff for Lent. Major things that have not been bought because it's Lent include: cds/records/ um, cassettes, books, clothes, excessively nice anythings, kitchen hardware (so whoever accidentally took home my lunchbox from work please return it asap - I can't buy another one!). The effect of not being able to buy things is obviously making me want to buy things more than ever before but I am staying strong! A bracelet made of lego-men can wait til after Easter!

One major challenge presented itself yesterday when I was early for the cinema (free ticket so ya boo sucks fault-pickers!). To kill a bit of time, me and Becca went into Waterstones. A Dan Rhodes book that I have never read caught my eye. Well, it didn't really catch my eye until I went to see if it was there, looked along the R's and tried not to be distracted by the larger amount of shelf space given to someone called Will Rhode. Anyway, it is a collection of 101 stories, called Anthropology. In an attempt to kill time I started to read the book and got through about ten of the very succinct tales. I was itching to take it away with me. Then I was thinking about how far away Easter is. Then I was thinking about who I could persuade to buy it for me. It struck me, I read ten stories in five minutes... if I read a further ten stories every time I pop into town I can get the whole book read by Easter. For free!

So, please don't anyone go and buy the last copy of Anthropology from the Grey Street Waterstones. Oh, and don't go and tell Dan Rhodes that making short stories really short makes them easy to steal. Cause I love him. Well, not the real him (just in case you know him and you're thinking 'he never buys a round - he's a bell-end!'), just his short, short story writing persona. (Which is not to say that I ever come across any evidence to suggest that Dan Rhodes is a bell-end or in any way unlovable - it's just that I don't know him, so I couldn't say.)