Today's official plan was to go to the state fair, an idea born out of Dan's new obsession with all things agrarian since his last visit to Iowa. I mean, when I, with all the sarcastic venom I could spew, read off that one of today's events was an exhibition of Jersey cows, he got all excited.
"Are you actually into Jersey cows? Or any cows?"
"Well, my dad would love that. I could take some pictures and send them to him."
"Um, aren't there some Jersey cows in Iowa he could see if he wanted to?"
I think somebody misses his mom and dad...
I remember going to the state fair when I was a kid, but I haven't been since petting zoos stopped seeming really cool. But, hey, I'm a whore for a corn dog on a stick and kettle corn, so I agreed to go.
Then my mom called and asked if we wanted to go to church with her this morning. It wasn't even Christmas, Easter or Mother's Day. But, I was powerless against the overwhelming force of Catholic Mother Guilt. I volunteered Dan to go, too, because I needed him to keep my back in case I spontaneously burst into flames or started speaking in tongues or something.
What no one told us was that today was the quarterly baptism day. That is when all the babies born since the last baptism day are welcomed into the fold and cleansed of all their original sin. And did I mention this was a Catholic church? These people are breeders. The obedient ones don't use birth control and God is pleased and blesses them with multitudes of children. There were A LOT of babies!! Dan called it "babypalooza" when we left. And jesusmaryandjoseph, they were SOOO f-ing cute!
The church my parents like to go to is run by the Jesuits who I've always admired for asking questions and standing up for social justice. Two things happened today that I found surprising and made me admire them even more. First, in the part during the mass when the priest says, "God, our father and maker of all things..." the Jesuit said "God, our father and mother..." Right on! Also, all the babies were completely buck naked in front of the whole congregation to be baptized, which was very, um...uninhibited.... for a bunch of Catholics. It wasn't so bad.
But it sure was hard to see so many beaming mommies and daddies with all their beautiful little babies.
