Lent is a hard time of year for me, because it means doing without. Being that I'm poor (ok, not poor poor, I am above the poverty line, just not enough to get all comfortable about it), I don't like doing without more then I'm already doing without. Meat is something I love with a passion, because, well, it's meat! It tastes good and it's probably bad for you. What's not to love? And of course, Lent means no meat on Fridays. In retrospect, this is no big deal. For most parts of the world for most parts of time, not having meat was the defacto standard. Eating meat, and large quantities to boot, one day of the week was a big deal. But I'm not living there or then, I'm here and now, and dammit, I want meat! So I'm cranky, is where I'm trying to go with this. Which leads me to my two co-workers who were having lunch today. They were sharing chicken dumpling soup. They're also Catholic like me. I called them out on the soup, upon which they protested that it was OK since it was "just white meat". I had a nice laugh, which was nice as now I'm not so cranky. I was sad to inform them that white or dark, chicken is still meat, and as such a no no. We had a nice talk about what's really important, what you eat or what you do, which is a good argument that I don't want to mess with (or else I'll start having to keeping Kosher). But it all came down to meat is meat. If you don't want to follow the "rules", that's fine, there are some good arguments for that side. But if you do want to follow the rules, then chicken is still (sadly) meat. Which means I am totally screwed on what to get for dinner tonight. I haven't the foggiest clue what to do.