A Little Bit of Irreverence

Thanks to half priced tickets off Goldstar Events (I highly recommend this site to everybody!), I dragged my brother with me to see Avenue Q, a satirical look at life after college, struggling to make a living and finding yourself. All done with puppets. Sounds strange, but it works. AND it's hilarious. Though I was fond of Sesame Street as a kid, I wasn't obsessed enough with the show to be bothered by this spoof, including imitation Bert and Ernie puppets struggling with the issue of homosexuality. The first few songs just hook you in right away, with exceptionable titles such as "It Sucks To Be Me," "If You Were Gay," "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist, " and "The Internet Is For Porn."

After the musical, I dropped by Singer's "Summer Party and Come Meet My New Boyfriend" BBQ. I'm not kidding. It's in the evite. I had briefly met him a while back, before Singer and I had gone to the Police concert, but I wanted to see her anyway. Because of dinner plans with the family, I could only stay for a little while. That turned out ok because I knew nobody there. And the people who were there were all her devout church going friends and colleagues.

I'd like to think that I'm pretty open-minded and categorize myself as agnostic, but I have to admit I'm not comfortable with people who repeatedly invite me to visit their church nor with people who mention God every few sentences. (Singer wasn't like that and because the four of us college roommates were all so different in terms of religion, friends, and personality, we got along in our own little world and tried very hard not to impose our own views too harshly on each other.)

Example 1: Singer says to a friend "Wow, you look good. You've lost a lot of weight since I last saw you."
Friend: "By the grace of God."

Example 2: I ask a girl at the table if she went to the same university as Singer and me.
Girl proceeds to tell me that she was always jealous of Singer because she couldn't get into our school. Instead she went to another branch of our public university system and says she wasn't that crazy about it. Then ends the conversation with "Ah, but it was God's will."

Ok, how do you respond to these answers?! Do I say "AMEN sistah!" or "Can I hear a HALLELUJAH?" And I guess it would have been rude to inquire what kind of exercise or weight loss plan that was. As with most things, I decided to smile politely and refrain from talking.