A Missing Friend

To all my wonderful fellow and former sufferers of the university I call my choice,
Larry, Locoma, BJF, Ishyshy, Christina, Bordi, Shu, Anna and Qades,
this is just because I missed you guys today :)

A missing friend
Is an uneaten half of a waffle I couldn't finish.
It is an unobserved eye roll at the ridiculousness of club activities on campus.
Or an unshared giggle directed at a once-hated lecturer.

A missing friend
Is a signature that need not be forged on an attendance list.
It is a silent lunch alone with a book.
An unexpressed rant about the lack of vegetarian food at the cafeteria.

A missing friend
Is an uncontrollable smile as memories of good times interrupt thoughts of Life Contingencies.
It is a hasty text about how classes are depressing when you clowns aren't around.
Possibly a plan to relive childishness and irresponsibility in all its glory.
Possibly over bak kut teh ;)

Missing you guys!!

An Ash Wednesday

Well it's done it again. Lent has struck me unawares once more, making this the umpteenth Lent that I did not feel prepared for.

Today when I got my first vegetarian Lent meal, I felt like I was just pretending to be vegetarian for a mythical and completely made up season. How weird is that?

Anyway my oddities aside, other than my amazing meat, I really didn't know what to give up for Lent this year. I make it a point to give up meat because well, I've been doing it for a while now and it has never even gotten the slightest little bit easier. So I figure since it's so difficult for me to give up that it must be kinda important to me. Or just mightily taken for advantage. Take your pick. 

So yeah, meat's a given.

There was one year when I was obsessing quite madly over JC Chasez when I decided I should give up watching JC/NSync videos for Lent. It....was interesting.

Scratch that it was terrifying and it just made me hyper aware of just how mad a fangirl I can be. Okay then. Confession time. Don't judge me. 

Lent is supposed to be for 40 days, right? But if you actually add up all the days in Lent you get 47 days (or something like that. Whatever it's more than 40 days, okay??). This is because the Sundays in Lent aren't counted in the Lent season for some reason. So people like me latch onto this loophole for dear life during Lent and some people, namely me, probably wouldn't survive without these Sunday breaks from Lenten-ness. 

I would actually stay up Saturday night watching the clock on my laptop til it struck 12, my cursor pointed and ready on the first NSync video I wanted to watch that night. I'd stay up like a mad person til 3 or 4 in the morning just watching video after video to ogle at the perfection that was JC Chasez. I know. I was mad.

Although he is kinda adorable and uh...

*drop jaw* Perfect. He's perfection at its absolute best. Its best I tell you!! Its best!!

Let me tell you how obsessed I was with this poor man who was being web stalked from across the globe. I just Googled JC Chasez gif images for both the pictures above that accentuates his absolute perfection, right? It has been years since my crazy obsession and I still know which video the gif image came from and with no hint necessary I could tell you WORD for WORD what he was saying.

I vowed never to do anything like that again. It was mostly because giving up JC for Lent had only fueled my obsession with him and I became...well, absolutely cuckoo. 

So the other day, Hannah, who is now 13 and who I still babysit sometimes, was teasing me at church about that Lent when I gave up JC. Suddenly she got this huge grin on her face and she said, "Hey akka, you know what you should give up for Lent this year?"

I warily turned around knowing full well that this girl knew too many embarrassing things about me to not choose something that would hurt so much it would make me want to die a slow and painful death. 

Sure enough, guess what she suggested I give up.

*cough cough* Um, yeah. *clear throat* Yeah, I'm okay. That just uh.... *wipe away drool* yeah, that took a lot out of me. *clear throat* I'm okay. Yeah, sure. I'm sure. Uhhuh.

HOW DID SHE EXPECT ME TO GIVE UP THOSE DIMPLES!!!????

I actually got mad at her for suggesting it. The poor girl was wondering why I was suddenly so flustered. I know I screamed the word 'no' a lot and 'never again'. I'm sure I threw in a 'hell no' in there somewhere too. I came very close to telling her (in a very mean and un-role-model-like behaviour) to mind her own business. But I came to my senses and realizing how rude it would have sounded, reined in my sudden burst of 'anger' (the inverted commas are there because I really don't know what possessed me) to tell her to "Mind her own Lent" instead. So instead of a blowout, we ended up planning to make one of those t shirts that said "Keep Calm & Mind Your Own Lent". Isn't that an idea? :)

So needless to say, I spent my Ash Wednesday morning drooling over, I mean studying and analyzing for future television references, an episode of The Originals which yet again featured a shirtless, I mean a riveting performance by Joseph Morgan. 

Here's to another painful and meaningful Lent that we will all survive together ;)