Well, all Fridays in Lent are fasting days and Stations of the Cross days for those who can manage it, but tomorrow's really just a standard Lenten Friday, not a big one. I regret to rat out my compatriots, but I feel it's highly likely that your office Papists are trying to sneak something past the pagans and get themselves a 4-day weekend.

eta: Heh. Romish cross-post.

vw, how did everything go for your friend--uneventful, I hope.

Oh, that coffee maker is pret-ty!

New game: Yeti Albatross Toss: 1146.06 [link]

It turns out that Chinese-descended Catholics in the Bay Area got a pass from the local bishop: they could do the imposition of ashes a day late, because Ash Wednesday was the Lunar New Year this year and there's a very, very strong cultural taboo against doing things associated with death on that day. I think that's neat.

vw, how did everything go for your friend--uneventful, I hope.

Pretty much. I mean, it was difficult, but it went as well as could be expected. And I got a massage from an amazing massaging chair while she was packing.

Oh, that coffee maker is pret-ty!

Isn't it?

Ash Wednesday at school was so weird. I had to ask someone what the ashed were made from -- I was sure they had to be santified ashes in some way, but didn't know? Burnt pages of the Bible, maybe?

Then they told me they were burnt palms from last year, and I wondered aloud if anyone had ever had an allergic reaction and they gave me a weird look and wandered away.

I don't mean to be dissrespectful; I 'm just curious.

I always wondered about things like that. What if the priest's alcoholic? Does he still have to consecrate wine?

OMG ERIN I AM SO OFFENDED HOW COULD YOU ASK THAT OMG OMG I AM AGHAST

::bursts into tears::

::flounces out::

Well, if JZ's flouncing, it can't be ALL that bad, right...

;)

I also had a conversation with a shiny-new priest in the faculty room (seriously, he looks about 12 and I'm not Catholic -- do I HAVE to call him Father?) and I was asking about Catholic hierarchy, and wandered off into talking about the Avignon schism, Pope Joan and the de Medici pope with the 12 illegitimate children.

He was all "You know more about Catholicism than most Catholics" and looked scared.

Yeah, but all my info is like, 800 years old. I know nothing about modern C'ism.

It turns out that Chinese-descended Catholics in the Bay Area got a pass from the local bishop: they could do the imposition of ashes a day late, because Ash Wednesday was the Lunar New Year this year and there's a very, very strong cultural taboo against doing things associated with death on that day. I think that's neat.

That's great. I vaguely wondered about that, but not earnestly enough to actually look it up.