First Entry

I started a blogspot primarily for longer epistolary post so that I don’t clog my Tumblr with posts that no one will reblog because the stories aren’t about them. Moving on then…

Today is rather awesome as it is both sunny and warm. Usually in early February we have one week where it is gorgeous out. This will happen just before it gets overcast and rainy out, like a Twilight movie, and  it will be like this until June. Basically this is relevant. 

Today is also awesome because I went to Applebee’s with some friends. It was actually supposed to be one friend that I knew from a church I used to attend. It was an independent Christian church with its roots in the Protestant Restorationist movement (not be confused with Luther’s reformation). You don’t need to look up a Wikipedia article on that. Just think a Max Lucado book and you get the idea. I started going there when I first moved here and attended for years, volunteering with teaching in the children’s ministry.

Most of my friends were from this church, so it was hard when I left this church in a conversion to Catholicism. Why did I leave? Quoting Dave Armstrong in his article One Hundred Fifty Reasons I’m Catholic (And You Should Be Too!” (I am convinced that the Catholic Church conforms much more closely to all of the biblical data, offers the only coherent view of the history of Christianity (i.e., Christian, apostolic Tradition), and possesses the most profound and sublime Christian morality, spirituality, social ethic, and philosophy. Alternate: I am a Catholic because I sincerely believe, by virtue of much cumulative evidence, that Catholicism is true, and that the Catholic Church is the visible Church divinely-established by our Lord Jesus, against which the gates of hell cannot and will not prevail (Matthew 6:18), thereby possessing an authority which I feel bound in Christian duty to submit. 2^nd Alternate: I left Protestantism because it was seriously deficient in its interpretation of the Bible (e.g. “faith alone” and many other “Catholic” doctrines…), inconsistently selective in its espousal of various Catholic Traditions (e.g., the Canon of the Bible), inadequate in its ecclesiology, lacking a sensible view of Christian history (e.g. “Scripture alone”), compromised morally (e.g., contraception, divorce), unbiblically schismatic, anarchical, and relativistic. I don’t therefore believe that Protestantism is all bad (not by a long shot), but these are some of the major deficiencies I eventually saw as fatal to the “theory” of Protestantism, over against Catholicism. All Catholics must regard baptized, Nicene, Chalcedonian Protestants as Christians.”  

It was a difficult decision to make because I didn’t know how anybody was going to react. Some evangelicals are anti-Catholic and see the Church as pagan, the anti-Christ, the Whore of Babylon, etc. Others are relativistic and believe, “Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, etc. are all just different kinds of Christians.” Although I more believe that I would be dealing with the latter, I wasn’t sure enough to make a big deal of my conversion. I stopped going quietly and, like a chicken, just emailed the Children’s pastor and essentially said, “I can’t teach class anymore because I’m going to Saint Joseph’s Church; I’ve been taking RCIA classes there and I’m going to start attending mass there instead.” He didn’t send me a reply back. I just heard from a friend that he got the email because he told her I was attending another church, but he didn’t tell her why.

I was really sad about leaving though and would listen to Carrie Underwood’s “Starts With Goodbye” and be all “This song is about my church life!” I started talking to good friend from that church again on Facebook when I was looking for roommates and apartments and all that good stuff. She was looking for a roommate too and had said, “We could be roommates!” We got together one weekend to look at houses for rent. It didn’t work out, but we had fun and it was nice to get in touch again.

So that leaves off to earlier this week when I was thinking about how we used to go to Applebee’s and I wanted to do that again because I love their appetizers. I don’t even need an entrée. I’ll just eat the Appetizer Sampler. As I was thinking, “Man, we should do that again,” a thought hit me: I could instigate our meeting. Normally, I was invited to events and a follower of other people’s plans, but I could just say, “Hey, let’s hang out at Applebee’s and it could happen.” That is exactly what I did and we set a date for today once I got off my shift at work.

 I got off my shift early because the store ended up with three people working during a slow stretch of time. So I left and found a text message from my friend saying that she was bringing two other girls with her. I knew both of them. They were from the Church and all three of them went to the same Bible school. The university is Christian, Protestant, conservative, fundamental, evangelical, non-denominational church (with Baptist origins). Back in the day, I had wanted to study creative writing there. I said it was cool for them to come along because I don’t have a problem with either of them personally, but I became nervous. I wondered what I would say if everyone started asking why I wasn’t going to their church anymore or what I would do if they started comparing Catholicism to “born-again” Protestant evangelicalism.

None of this happened. I don’t know why I imagined the most dramatic outcome. All of them are nice, friendly, funny, regular girls. It’s not like they are crazy movie Christians.


They are more like this: 

Than this: 

Actually, it was fun to see all of them again; a little awkward when they talked about church and school stuff that involved everyone except me, but it wasn’t bad at all. We all had 2 for 20 entrée meals since there were four of us and the two appetizers that came with it. I didn’t get my Sampler, but at least I got my wings with hot sauce. I also ordered a mudslide drink and a cookie sundae even though I was the only person getting a dessert. Thankfully, the waiter brought extra spoons for the sundae so I wasn’t eating it by myself while everyone was staring at me and ready to leave (but I would have if it came down to that). When the waiter checked my I.D. for my Mudslide, he tilted it to ensure it was legit and wondered what he was looking for. Before long, all four of us were tilting our I.D.s for embossing or whatever else might indicate a real I.D. from a forgery. 

Now I am dog-sitting for three dogs who were ready to be released from their basement kennel as soon as I arrived. They barked up a storm, as though to say, "We know you're up there!" I also got the cat's litter box cleaned out, which I have been meaning to do for awhile. It's been getting bad and I want to install another scent of my Bath and Body Works air freshener thingies, but not until I cleaned the box out so that I wouldn't just be masking the smell. 

Later I am going to write here about Vampire the Masquerade. 

Until then, Adieu.