Cold weather, hot barista, and the unintended consequences of Ash Wednesday mass

It's been cold lately so I've been frequenting Local Coffee Shop more than usual and The Hot Barista has taken note. I haven't paid for a drink for the last few days and he wrote his number on the cup sleeve today before he handed it to me with a wink and a "call me sometime."

In other news... a few of us went out for Mardi Gras and ended up staying up all night since we all had early classes on Ash Wednesday. Little Sister #1 is Catholic... although she tends to pick and choose what she tenets she follows... but she does Lent every year and this year she's giving up parties. I don't know how she's going to survive 40 some odd days without going out, but I guess the positive here is that the only major party holiday she's missing is St. Paddy's Day. And probably a handful of list parties, but there's always list parties.

Anyway, she wanted to go to 5am Mass on Ash Wednesday to get it out of the way and somehow convinced me (probably in the post-Mardi Gras drunken state) to go with her so she wouldn't have to go alone. I was up anyway so off we went. She got her little ash mark on her forehead, which I like to think of as a somewhat fashionable Catholic accessory for the occasion. While I was waiting for her to get her mark, I ran into this girl in my Genetics Section. I'm pretty sure she's a good Catholic and does everything as it should be done or whatever. Anyway she had her ash mark all day yesterday but when I walked into Genetics Section today... she had sprung a growth of acne right where the ash mark was! Oops... Little Sis #1 says that sometimes the priests use some oil based substance to mix with the ash so it sticks on all day and it probably clogged her pores. Little Sis #1 says that's why she went home and replaced the ash mark with non-comedogenic gray eyeshadow over foundation so she wouldn't have a similar problem. I love that she tries to balance her faith with her vanity. Perhaps Jesus is testing The Good Catholics out there by trying them with skin problems.