Oh, the Stories: Totally Going to Hell.

I mentioned a few posts ago about how I wanted to start a series of old stories, pictures, recipes, and friends that I've either forgotten to post, took to long to post, or didn't have a blog and therefore couldn't post.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Volume 1 of my "Oh, the ..." series.

If you can't tell, it's loosely based on Dr. Seuss' "Oh the Places You'll Go." The only problem is, I've already been these places, cooked the recipes, taken these pictures, and loved these friends. So I had to change it up a bit.

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I was reading The Pioneer Woman's blog today, and she was regaling us with the story of the time she went to see her nephew get baptized and how being in Catholic churches always makes her cry.

When she mentioned Catholic churches, it made me think of this picture.



This was taken in Rome, Italy. I ventured over there in the summer of 2009. My friend Kasey and I were exploring the city and we came across this beautiful church. It was small and could probably only seat about a 100 people. My university has larger classrooms than this church. However, it was beautiful and had some gorgeous paintings and sculptures.

Kasey and I ooh-ed and awe-ed at all of it. This was also during the time of the Swine Flu Epidemic so I'm pretty sure that we had a little giggle about the fact that the Holy Water basin was filled with not water, but Germ-X hand sanitizer.

We decided that we desperately need a picture of us praying in this beautiful church. Hello self-timer.

Now y'all, I'm not Catholic. I'm Southern Baptist. Which, I do believe, is about as far as one can get from Catholicism. One thing that I do know about Catholics is that they can layer on some guilt. I mean, daggum. Southern Baptists have hellfire and brimstone, but Catholics have some guilt. Since I'm not Catholic, I have had very little guilt in my life.

Until this picture, that is.

As soon as we walked about of that church, I turned to Kasey and said, "We're totally going to hell."

She looked astonished and asked why I thought that.

"That picture is a total heresy against the sacred act of prayer."

She scratched her head and said, "Well, did you pray when we were taking it?"

"Of course I did!"

"Then what's your problem?"

When I couldn't give Kasey an answer, she pointed out a gelato stand and we helped ourselves to probably our second or third helping of the day.

Even though I prayed, this picture still gives me a bit of guilt every now and again.

I figured that if I were to be heading straight for the fiery depths, then maybe I should use my time before then to make a few people laugh.

So get a good chuckle out of this one for me.

...and then pray for my soul.

Sincerely,
Reba