It’s that time again and by “that time,” I mean Lent. Every year of my life since early childhood, I have given up candy, moving on to give up all sweets/desserts in more recent years (because let’s face it, I can justify nearly anything out of the candy category, e.g. “pain au chocolat is technically a breakfast food, not a dessert, so it doesn’t count…”).

This year, on Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras, I was all set to eat pancakes for dinner and kiss delicious treats goodbye for the next 40 days, when I read on Facebook that a friend was logging off for Lent. “Whoa! That’s crazy talk!” I said. That would be hard! Which made me think, perhaps I should do something a little more sacrificial. After all, Jesus didn’t have access to his online community for 40 days in the desert. Or something like that.

Anyway, I updated my status on Tuesday night to bid adieu until Easter and went to bed, wondering how I’d hold up. I’m kind of excited, because I waste a lot of time on FB. Don’t get me wrong, I love FB and I will be back, but I need to use it as a communication tool and not a way to procrastinate on things I don’t want to do. Because I am The World Champion of Procrastinating when I need to do something that I deem to be an unappealing use of my time (this includes all chores, tasks, goals, sleeping, etc). There are entire hours lost when I am consciously thinking to myself: “I should really log off; this isn’t even interesting,”  and yet, I sit and surf other people’s online lives while my own goes whizzing by with naught a trace. Not good, really.

So I am hoping to regain a little focus, balance and face-to-face time with all my peeps. Or you know, get sleep, which has been known to suffer at the hands of me olde laptop. We’ll see how it goes. So far, I’ve had several moments where I thought of a KILLER status update, but couldn’t let the world know. I’m sorry about that. I know everyone is just dying to know what recent titillating outlook I have to share. And yet, the world continues to turn. Instead, I’ve made homemade soup, caught up on reading and sleep and generally felt much more free. I also didn’t get to broadcast my concern for Japan in the wake of their tragic and terrifying earthquake/tsunami for all my friends to read (which I’m doing here, instead: What a terrifying scenario. All the more so for those of us sitting on a ticking time bomb of a fault-line-riding island). Instead, I look for more active ways to learn more about the situation and see what I can do to help.

As I fast, I’ll keep you posted (another goal to dedicate some new-found freedom to: being a better blogger)… That being said, I’m off to eat some chocolate, because I can.