Like today.

Mandy, a lovely Texan who found me through this blog offered to take me out for a real meal while here (it seems she had read one too many mentions of my penchant for PB&J’s on twitter and well, nobody leaves Texas hungry). At first I laughed it off, not wanting to be the awkward gauche person who takes somebody up on an offer that they meant as a joke. But she made it clear she was serious, and so I bit.

She picked me up at noon today and we spent a great couple of hours together. She’s kind and talented with a fun sense of humor and also loves to blog.

The fact that she’s 5’8 just like me doesn’t hurt, either.

She took me to this cute Mexican place called Chuy’s and the waiter was obliging enough to document the moment.
And here’s a little gem from there as well.
Our silverware was wrapped in paper that gave us three options for prayers, depending upon your preferred faith and assuming that you couldn’t just make one up on the spot, I guess.

Not everybody can free-style, you know.

All three prayers are lovely, actually; I’d be honored to pray any of them and I am pretty sure God would be happy to hear them.

The fact that there was a gentile/jewish choice made me think of my six year old nephew, Ollie, who now lives in California during the school year. Anyway, one day his mom came into his classroom only to find him covered in a prayer shawl and wearing a yarmulke.

They were studying Judaism. Which is awesome.

Later, when Ollie announced to his family that he wanted to become Jewish, his sister Lyric informed him that he simply couldn’t.

Why? he asked.

Because we are Christian! she said, leaving no uncertainty in the matter.

Showing some budding abilities in diplomacy, Ollie stated, Then I will be Christian when I am on the east coast and Jewish when I am in California.

And that plan seems to be coming along just fine. He’s back on the east coast for the summer now and, as far as I know, has been faithfully attending church every Sunday, just like a good Christian should.

Anyway, it’s quite a lovely world considering we can start a meal with a stranger and finish it with a friend–and be given the option of three different prayers all the while.

Or Easter.

I guess that will just depend upon which coast he happens to be on at the time.