Today was a blast!! I actually had my first-ever normal day here, like where I truly felt the most relaxed and at-home like I was back in Wisconsin.
I think that's because I was surrounded by family. There's a family down here that has essentially adopted me for the summer; it's Bryan's family. Bryan is my coworker I've mentioned several times on this blog, for he and I were assigned the same project to work on this summer. He's a LOT of energy, but just the right dose to pull me out of my shell and get me out to do things on the weekends.
This morning he took me to my first southern church experience. It's a church he's been attending since 1986 when I was only one year old myself! I didn't know what really to expect, but I had an image in my head: pretty much any scene you could pull from the Sister Act movies with Whoopie Goldberg and the choir in graduation robes singing up on the altar.
So we went there and took our seats as the sermon was starting. And my goodness it was indeed straight-up JUST what Sister Act was. In purple graduation-looking robes were three rows of standing gospel choir, swaying back and forth and holding hands up, getting all into it and singing their songs. The congregation itself was pretty good-sized. Actually, it would be like St. Edward and Isidore Church on Flintville Rd. back in Suamico if St. Ed's just added a second floor balcony thing above the current pews, for additional pew seating to look down on the podium and stage area. Oh, and if they added a full-flanked band, including a drum set, three guitarists, three piansts, and an orchestra. :) It was also one of those churches that videotapes its ceremonies and lands them on television. They had multiple flat-screen projectors and fancy camera work to catch the many angles of the lecture going on at the podium.
After the sermon we all went to Sunday School. The children went to their traditional Sunday School classes, and the adults went to their 'Sunday School,' or what we up north call Bible studies. We attended that, where Bryan's mom and stepdad teach, and after a grand total of 3 hours I had my religion for the day.
Following all of this, Bryan was invited to a spontaneous birthday party for one of his mother's best friends at her house. Since Bryan was my ride out from the church, I tagged along and we sure got spoiled for the afternoon! It must have been a half hour ride out to this woman's house, zipping and zagging through Mississippi suburbia, and HOLY CRAP did we see some mansions!!!! The farther out we drilled, the bigger the houses got! We're talking all-masonry homes with hand-laid tile driveways, professionally landscaped yards with palm trees imported from the coast, pillars marking the front door entry way and black Mercedes Benz CL classes parked in the driveways. Seriously, HOLY CRAP!
We finally pulled up into this woman's driveway behind her own Mercedes Benz, walked in and were immediately showered in hospitality. Ice cold sweet tea was handed to us and tours of the new house on the lake were immediately presented. Talk about hanging out in the country club on a Sunday!! The house had a french bar off of the kitchen, with 12-foot square tile running throughout the floor and Corian countertops and custom copper-bowl sinks. The house had two hand-laid brick open hearth fireplaces and a gourmet kitchen that I swear Martha Stewart herself raffled off. There were fine touches in EVERY room, I had to mind my manners and hold my jaw-drop shut. HOLY CRAP again!
After the tour we were set down at the glass dining room table and fed the BEST southern food. Damn, us Yankees have a lot of cooking catching up to do! I think the one good thing we've got going for us is brats!
For lunch here in the south, we had this delicate chicken parmesan that was either stolen from Olive Garden or made by some professional chef. Along with it was this hot-pink looking fruit bar Jell-O thing which turned out to be as fun to eat as it was as fun to look at its Barbie coloration. Along with THAT we had Ashley's Favorite Potatoes, much to my surprise. (Yeeaaaah, Grandma!) Well, I'm sure they're not really called that. They were the hash brown/cheese mixture that my Grandma Judy can make by the pound-full and I will sit there and eat them without even exhaling. I just love them! So, I got to do a little of that today. :) We had typical southern corn bread with this, along with fresh-baked bakery bread. For dessert, we had caramel cake. I have never heard of caramel cake before, but it was pretty simple to make. You just bake a white cake right off of the Betty Crocker cake mix shelf at your local grocery store. Instead of putting frosting on it, you melt cubes of caramel candies, and when it's one delish fluid mixture, you spread it on the cake to make it the frosting. It was good, but by the end of eating your slice you surely want a tall drink of milk. Whew!
Everyone was so nice to me though, taking me under their wing and making sure I had anything I needed. I'm never one to draw attention, I'll just sit quietly on my square cushion of a couch, but everyone was so nice and curious to hear about my travels and how such a little Wisconsin girl made it down to the blast furnace of Mississippi! They loved hearing that I was from Green Bay too, of all places. (I really should have started a tally of how many people get impressed by that down here! That, and how many people get this admirable look in their eye when they hear me say I'm out doing this on my own.)
After eating, Bryan and I left so he could go hang out with a friend of his visiting from Birmingham, AL. Even as we were walking out the door we were being fed slices of caramel cake, it was so pleasant! I really felt like a part of the family and want to make sure that message gets conveyed to them all before I leave this summer.
Now I'm back at my apartment, my own version of a country club :), and topping off a nice Sunday with the best Ashley touch ever: watching VH1 count down the 100 Best Songs of the 90s. That is totally my turf, yesssss!
Oh, nostalgia.
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