for the love of cheese.

I was so happy when Easter finally arrived yesterday. I think I really taxed myself this year with my Lenten discipline-- I gave up cheese.

Yes, cheese. This is apparently very traditional according to the Lent entry of Wikipedia:

During the early Middle Ages, meat, eggs and dairy products were generally proscribed. However, dispensations for dairy products were given, frequently for a donation, from which several churches are popularly believed to have been built, including the Butter Tower of the Rouen Cathedral.

I did allow myself cottage cheese (too good for me to count as a real sacrifice), once slipped and had cream cheese and completely forgot and took a bite of a slice of sharp Cheddar cut to fit on a cracker. Ooh, but that tasted good.

I didn't miss cheese on stuff- like burgers, cold cut sandwiches or even burritos. But I DID miss things in which cheese was the main ingredient: pizza, grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, goat cheese on Triscuits. Nachos. Queso. So many things I just didn't count on as being off-limits for those 40 long days. I can't remember the last time I ordered a pizza before Lent, but during Lent all I could think about was a large pepperoni from Papa John's. With the garlic dipping sauce. The entire box of Hot Cross Buns and ridiculous amount of Honey Nut Cheerios, Honey Bunches of Oats and Special K with Red Berries I allowed myself to eat almost made up for the empty place in my diet. Almost.

I like to think I was pretty stalwart about it; I didn't really get cheese-happy til Good Friday, when my mom told me she was boiling eggs for Easter and I unthinkingly said "With cheese?"

Yes, God would have forgiven me had I decided to order a pizza or make myself a grilled cheese sandwich (especially considering the unfortunate living situation my roommate and I were in, albeit temporarily). But where's the discipline in that?