baptist song camp

So, today I went to a mommy and me singing activity that my friend told me about. She said it cost $10.00 and that it was at a baptist church. It sounded like fun, so I decided to give it a whirl. I glanced at the registration form and saw it was at some place called second baptist church. (catholic rant: what's the deal? What is the difference between the second baptists and the first baptists? and where do the southern baptists fit in? Do you see what happens when you don't have a pope, people!!!!!) Since it was the second baptist, I figured they weren't as good as the firsts and that it would be a small little church since it only cost 10.00 bucks. Wrong-o-dong-o. Turns out that Second means Second to none. The church was in Tanglewood, which is where President H.W. Bush lives. The church was humongous, and if it wasn't for the steeple and the Italian style dome, I would have thought it was a small university. My mom explained to me later, which I kind of knew, that baptists tithe and that's why it was 10.00, because they have tons of money. ""They aren't like catholics, "oh this month I don't have any money, oh well, " they give no matter what.""

So I get there and there are all of these tanglewood mommies in their $200.00 designer jeans and perfectly dyed and coiffed hair. Thankfully there was a small contingent of garden oaks moms to ghetto the place up in our Targey and Jacque Penngnet's outfits. The designer mommies give their kids designer names like Saylor and Michalyn. One little girl was wearing a tu-tu and some fancy top with her hair in a Pebbles-style pony tail. She walked right over to Annabelle and hit her in the face. I told Annabelle to let that one ride (what can you expect from a girl who wears a tu-tu on a Monday?) and she gave Tu-tu a real dirty look, kind of like "don't mess with me Barbie-face, I bite."

Since it was Baptist song camp, we started with a prayer. Our teacher was one of those really happy people who smiles all of the time, even when she is talking, which makes her voice sound weird. Then we sang lots of songs. They all required movement. That's the problem with all mommy and me classes, you can't just sit there and look at magazines, even when you have your period and are wearing a maxi-dress. And in Baptist song camp, you have to get up and march for the Lord and shake your hands and feet for the Lord and move your knees for the Lord and lots of other things that we don't do in Catholic Church, not even in vacation bible school. It was kind of a work out, actually and I didn't know a single one of the God songs. Of course, Annabelle loved it. She loved standing next to the teacher. And she really liked it when we broke out with the secular old Mcdonald and Wheels on the Bus. She was actually kind of mad that we didn't sing "bus, bus," (as she calls it) 10 times in a row, like we do at home sometimes. Most of all she loved her name tag, which she put on and off a million times before she finally put it on her leg and pretended it was a band-aid by pointing to it and saying "boo-boo." The class ended with bubbles being blown everywhere and all the kids running wild.

Sometimes I feel like I am a cultural anthropologist.

During supper, I told Hyhpen about it. He asked if I had the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

Hyphen used to be the hmfwic at Episcopalean song camp.