The good, the bad, and the... disconcerting...

So... okay. My day started off not so well. I had to take two of my clients to church. Which wouldn't have been bad. But they're LDS. I have to say that I have never sat through anything as horrible in my life as that "sacrament service." Firstly, I was the only female there not in a dress. I kinda did that on purpose, though, in the vain hope that they might kick me out for not wearing a dress. At the very least, I wanted them to know that I am not one of them.

The music was of a traditional sort, played on an organ, sung from a hymn book. But they weren't any hymns that I knew. I guess they made up their own... one of them was about the pioneers. Whatever. As for the people, every man wore a suit and every woman wore a dress. There was not a smile in the room. The people who got up to give their speeches often ended in tears. They talked about God like they were remembering some great, dead hero, thinking about what he would have wanted them to do. And I guess it fits, really. Their god is dead, and their church service is a funeral for him.

Everything is just so... cold and machine-like. The guy at the pulpit announced that a new couple had moved into town and was now attending the ward. He said the church had "received their records." What the heck kind of a church keeps records about its congregation?! The members also had to vote on whether or not the new couple could stay. Nice. Their prayers were dreary mono-tone recitations with plenty of "thees" and "thous" thrown in to give it "proper respect." Pah. I will never go back. Not even if it's my job. There is no way to describe how... twisted and unclean I felt after leaving that place. And downhearted. That is a place designed to crush a person's spirit into "proper feelings of unworthiness."

Anyway. After that, I went to my own church, which I enjoyed much more, and which went a lot way toward driving that sick feeling out of me. After church there was a picnic/bapetism at the lake. I went with the pastor's parents, who were in town visiting. We ate, did the bapetism thing, and then - the fun stuff. A few people in the church have boats, and these enormous inner-tube things to haul after them. The game is for a rider to hang onto that tube (which seats three) while the boat driver tries his darndest to knock that rider off the tube.

Ari was the champ. It took three tries for Joey to knock him loose, and even then, when the tube hit a huge wave, the thing was airborne about ten feet in the air for about five seconds and Ari still hung on. I did almost as good. I got knocked off twice. Once by waves that were too big to weather, and the next time when three of us were riding. That one hurt, 'cause we flipped and all kind of crashed together. My knee connected with Connor's head, and someone else's elbow hit my neck, and I wrenched my left arm fairly nicely trying to avoid colliding with Kelley's face.

I was actually wearing my jeans, because I hadn't known about the picnic, so I didn't know to bring swim-clothes. Joy loaned me a t-shirt, but I was still in my pants. Which I forgot to take the wallet out of before I went in. So naturally, the first time I came off the tube, I realized, "oh crap! My wallet's gone!" I grabbed the rope so I could be pulled back into the boat, and when I got to the boat, I spotted my wallet floating there! Crazy! Especially considering how big that lake is, how I could've lost it ANYWHERE, and how it blends into the water just enough that I just barely managed to see it...

But I've got it, now, and all my cards, certifacations, licenses and money for the chiropractor tomorrow are now drying out in my baseball cap. My favorite hat, by the way, which also went flying overboard today, and Ari managed to scoop it up out of the water.

Anyway. When we were done, I was (AM) thoroughly sore, and freezing to the bone. About then, it started to rain and thunder and lightening, so we packed everything up and went home. All in all, I should say, the latter half of the day was most satisfactory - and drove away all the horrid feelings from the former part of the day. On the downside, my poor little truck is still sitting in the corner with no water pump. Tomorrow, it'll have to be.

Until tomorrow!
--Anna Grace