We went to church

Ellie and I went to church today, while Greg stayed home and thought about his everlasting soul. We went last week, too, though it was to a different church. Both times it was with a churchgoing friend of mine who invited us along for different events. Today it was a pool party and BBQ.

I wore a t-shirt that had a stenciled symbol of a turtle on it. I stenciled the turtle on the shirt myself, partly because it's a symbol of long life and I thought that was pretty cool, but mostly because I like turtles.

As soon as I got there, though, I started having all these second thoughts that maybe turtles are some kind of pagan symbol that is a threat to Christianity or maybe even a symbol of Satan if you read the Bible in just the right way. I mean, I don't know these people. I don't know this church. This could be the Church of Crazytown for all I know. I wanted to say, "Hi, I'm Lisa and I just like turtles," to everyone I met. In the end, one guy said, "Nice turtle," and that was it.

Both churches used music very heavily in the service. Last week's church was totally multimedia, with music and movies and skits done by members of the congregation. This church wasn't quite like that, but it had a four-man band with three guitarists and a drummer.

We were all sitting in the first row, and Ellie and her friend were directly in front of the band. As soon as the band started playing its very contemporary Christian Rock songs, Ellie started playing air guitar. I taught her to play air guitar awhile ago when we were just hanging out listening to music and Greg was taking videos of us singing and dancing.

So Ellie and her friend were soon playing air guitar together and then her friend broke out the air drums. At one point, Ellie decided to take it to the next level, so she threw herself on the ground on both knees like a rock star with her "guitar" out in front of her. (That was part of my lesson in air guitar.) I was mortified, of course, and leaned over and whispered, "No no no, stand up! Don't do that!" Thank goodness she got right back up again.

A few people commented on how cute they were playing the guitar with the band. Ellie had a lot of fun running around the church and swimming in the pool. It's a nice church, but I don't think I'll be going back. It's a long drive to get there and I think my heathen status is pretty clear to anyone who meets me for more than a couple of minutes.