The rest of November

Okay...so, again, I'm not so great at Updating regularly. Here we go:

11/26: Day before Thanksgiving. I got out of work an hour early and then went to my friend Jeremy's house to play Rock Band with him and his brother who is visiting from Charleston. It's nice to play with two other expert-level players. It was a blast and we're hoping to do this again around New Year's.

11/27: Thanksgiving. Turkey-Day. Tryptophan bomb. I went to Megan's parents house at noon and we ate at 1pm. We had turkey, "diseased" stuffing(cooked inside the bird), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and a wonderful pumpkin cake with a pecan crust. After that Megan and I fell asleep on the couch watching football and then played a game of Scrabble Junior with Josh. By that time it was 4pm, so I left to go visit my parents. I called Adam on the way and caught up with him on the hour drive and then at my parents I had the missing Thanksgiving element that I had craved; baked macaroni and cheese casserole. Yum! I guess from now on I will have make this my contribution to the Compton family thanksgiving table. After a couple of hours there I met Megan and Evil Mandy at Cherrydale and we saw Quantum of Solace and then went over to Good Mandy's house for conversation and pie. All in all, it was probably the best Thanksgiving I can remember because there was no family stress for me. Sure, I don't know Megan's parents well yet, but they were friendly, so that wasn't too big of a deal.

11/28: Black Friday. I went shopping on Black Friday, but not your normal electronics and clothing maelstrom of commerce; instead I drove down to a leather shop in Columbia and spent $200 bucks on $320 worth of tools, dyes, kits, and leather. I've long wanted a hobby where I create something and with my lack of workshop space decided that leatherwork was the way to go. So far I haven't had much time to work on it, but I have a coaster with a carved rose that I'm now working on tooling, and I hope to have a couple of gifts by Christmas time.

11/29: Megan and I went to see The Duncan Estate, one of the sites we're looking at for the wedding. It was very pretty and we both really liked it. My only gripe is that it's in Spartanburg, but that's not really that big of a deal. We then drove back to Greenville, had lunch at Stax's Omega, and went by the Rock Quarry Garden downtown, another popular wedding site. We then went to my place and watched a movie then our friend Good Mandy showed up and we discussed plans for the SouthEast Shindig, which I will reveal more when the time is right.

11/30: I went to Megan's megachurch for the first time. We parked, went inside and dropped Josh off at his classroom after checking him into the kid's area, and after a brief walk-around went inside and found a seat in the main auditorium. There were two large projection screens with video ads for upcoming programs, but before the service started these images were replaced with a video of a strange Japanese game show where the contestants had to apparently say the right answer or were hit in the crotch with a mallet. Someone had changed the subtitles into inside jokes for the church. After that, there was a live rock band on stage that played three songs and everyone sang along as the lyrics were projected on the screen. Then there was an okay sermon from a young pastor of another megachurch in Charlotte. He seemed to be a bit too concerned adding humor into a sermon, but otherwise it was not bad. Afterward were another three songs and then it was over.

I can't ever imagine myself going to this type of church of my own will, but I'm sure she probably will say the same thing about my church once she experiences a full service. To my mind, these megachurches with their bad rock music, watered-down messages, and do-anything-to-get-thousands-of-people-inside mentality is most of what is I consider to be wrong with modern Christianity.

That said, I will be happy to go once a month or so without complaint because I love Megan and I don't want to encourage her to leave her church any more than I'm sure she would not encourage me to leave mine. This issue does seem to be one of our only stumbling blocks, but I'm sure we'll get through it in time. Right now our plan is to go to her church once a month, my church once a month, and then go to our own churches for the other two weeks. We will need a better solution later, but this will work for the next few months while we plan the rest of our lives together.