Too good to give up for Lent

It's that time again. The haze of Mardi Gras has worn off, and even some nonreligious kids set personal "no-nos" for themselves in a celebration of self-restraint. If you're having trouble thinking of what to give up this year, I can't help you, but here are the 10 most necessary PG-rated vices I could think of. Ending sentences with prepositions? Number 11.

10) Ten-minute showers. I am willing to set my alarm earlier than necessary for these. Everyone knows the shower is where all the best thinking and solos happen. I know this makes you sad, WaterWatch, but I do turn off the faucet when I brush my teeth.

9) Facebook.com. I know there's no way that Maupassant posted this week's reading on any of my friend's walls, and the general discussion of my thesis is hidden neither in someone's interests nor in photos tagged by others. I still refuse to deactivate in the name of productivity, and everyone who does deactivate or turns over managing control to a friend usually ends up coming back.

8) Trashy magazines. There is important news in the world today that we should know about — troops getting pulled from Iraq, for example. I appreciate my CNN.com and "The Economist" just as much as the next person, but does that mean I'm going to stop wanting to know that Britney shaved her head, that no one famous came to Paris's birthday party and what everyone wore to each award show? Nope.

7) Starbucks. Is everything they sell overpriced, and would I save hundreds of dollars annually if I made my own coffee? Maybe. Do the baristas remember my name in a vaguely Cheersesque way? You know it. I'm willing to brave the jungle of strollers and visiting families for this one.

6) Wine. It spruces up any dinner and it comes in lovely glasses. Even the boxed versions seem classier than beer and, in moderation, can have heart-healthy benefits, right?

5) Undercooked Frist rainbow cookies. Even though overdoing these might be a one-way ticket to fatty-town, if they're wrong, I don't want to be right. Apparently everyone else agrees since they're always the first cookies to disappear.

4) Thesis whining. I'm sick of working on it; I don't want to write it; how can I be expected to produce over 100 pages, editing seems so far away, my lab cubicle/library carrel is starting to feel like home, etc. Thesis talk is annoying and mostly boring, but at least it lets us know we're all in it together. Younger kids, when you're a senior, you'll want to do it too, so deal.

3) Online purchases. We all get a little nervous each time we send our credit card number out into cyberspace, returning is a huge pain and yes, there's always the risk that what you're ordering won't look the same in person or will fit like a grocery bag. But, online tracking is like listening for the radio reports on Santa's sleigh's whereabouts and the anticipation of coming back from class, and seeing the package outside your door is like waiting for Christmas morning.

2) Horrible reality television programs. "I Love New York," "The Hills," Engaged and Underage," "Trading Spouses," "Next," and company — really the stuff you know your parents would catch a glimpse of and think, what is this crap? We work hard enough — I think we deserve a little mind-rotting.

1) Not knowing my Frist mailbox combination. I still don't know it, I don't intend to try to know it, and I still ask juniors to help me open the thing.

Maybe it's good to set aside a certain time each year not only to think about what you could live without, but also the silly little things you couldn't. Laura Berner '07 is a psychology major from Rye, N.Y. She can be reached at lberner@princeton.edu.