i just got settled in my cozy hampton inn room here in decatur, alabama. the flight was smooth, not too many travel hassels, and i’ve met mr. and mrs. moviepastor.
despite my only being here for, at this point, a little over an hour, so far i have encountered some very southernesque things:
1) on the way to baggage claim, i was asked out on a date for tonight by a stereotypical nascar fan who was here to see some races at the talladega speedway.
it was not ricky bobby. i politely declined.
plus i think i freaked him out when he asked me why i was in town.
“to speak at a church about porn.”
that’s gotta be a conversation killer…
2) passed a truck on the highway for a company named “bubba dump.”
3) i saw a real scarecrow in a real corn field. the real corn field was across the highway from a real cotton field. you don’t see much of that in dallas.
4) the hotel receptionist uses “don’t” instead of “doesn’t.” because of the drawl, i think that makes it grammatically okay.
i’d appreciate your prayers as i continue to prepare for tomorrow! and to those of you coming to visit, thank you so much. you guys are awesome!
Comments
19 responses to “alabamalama”
Bubba Dump? I can’t decide what’s funnier, that or your “speaking about porn at a church” game-killer.
Hey, I’ve been at the Huntsville/Decatur airport a ton of times and no one has ever asked me out!
There are a ton of cotton fields around, but not nearly as many as when I moved to Alabama 8 years ago. When I got my Master’s Degree in Georgia, one of my classmates (a true southern gal) convinced one of our Yankee classmates that the cotton plants were “grits”. She made up some grits, let them dry out overnight, and formed the stuff into a little ball (the “grit” in its supposed original form). Had him going for a while. And they think Southerners are not too smart! Ha!
I was making plans to visit my sister in NC, but said I couldn’t make it on October 7 because I had something to do. She asked (just polite conversation) what I had planned. Kind of made me pause, because I didn’t want to say, “going to see this woman whose blog I read speak about porn at a church in a nearby town”. I actually do plan to tell her about my struggle (thank God and women like Anne who were willing to be open about this, the struggle is more past than present!), but I figured this would be a weird way to introduce the subject. (Plus, it seems like something to cover in person, not over the phone with her kids vying for her attention!) BTW, like a true bratty little sister, I ended up telling her that it was none of her business (jokingly, but she did drop the matter).
i wish i could come up with something really witty in response to bubba dump or to talk about porn at a church..but…i’ve got nothing for you.
however..in thinking about your day tomorrow and my day… i was thinking about pornography and what it really is.. i was reading a book that talked about male porn (what we typically think of) and female porn (romance novels, movies where the guys is perfect..which we then try to impose of real live men)
so..i thought about my greek classes and the topic.
porno + graphy= pornae (lustful things) and graphein (from grapho..I write or record)….as in (my translation) RECORDED LUST…whether that be movies, magazines, stories or conversations….made me think about just how saturated our society really is with the whole sex thing!
praying for you.
And then mr. and mrs. moviepastor took you to the o’charley’s and you experienced alabama football fans at their finest! roll tide roll!!!
How did I miss the bubba dump truck?
Hampton Inn is like the Mc Donalds of hotels, in that they are consistently consistent. I love the soft or hard pillows indicated by their pillowcase, and the warm cookies and cold milk in the lobby…..good times. Porn Sunday is going really well so far here at Lifechurch.tv Tulsa. We’re opening up the experiences with J. Giles’ – Centerfold.
Enjoy the comfy Hampton Inn beds and soft pillows, with a nice continental breakfast in the morning…..
I am still praying for you for tomorrow. You and one other pastor are the only two that I know of that are speaking on the issue. So, as our church tackles missions week, I’ll keep on praying for you, sister!
Thanks for your prayers everyone! I watched PS on the LifeChurch internet campus tonight and it is FREAKY weird how even though we prepared at different times, are speaking in different ways, how many similarities are in our messages! Same verses, points, steps…WOW….it kinda creeped me out but in a good way, knowing God is really speaking this weekend and we are all on the same page!!!
I’m still not sure about the whole college football phenom…that was just weird. :)
alabama takes football as serious as a heart-attack.
when my family first moved there, the first question they were asked was “you fer bama or auburn?”
welcome to alabama! it makes you want to stay.
good luck today anne…hit it out of the park….peace..m.
Anne, you did a great job! When you talked about bringing light into the “dark corners” of our lives, I thought of Luke 11:36: “If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” (NLT) I’ve been meditating on this verse a lot lately.
Thanks for helping light the dark corners of life…
BTW, you solicited questions a few days ago (“trade your porn for needy kids”). Well, I did think of a question (a day late and a dollar short): What (how, when, etc.) did you tell your parents about your struggle with porn? (I’m assuming they didn’t read about it here first!)
Liz
Anne,
I used to work by that movie theater and coached high school football in Madison. I hope they took you to Greenbriars BBQ.
That is completely awesome. Ain’t the south grand…OK ain’t bad either!
I’m sure you could mention “taking about pron in church” here and kill some conversations as well.
Stacey
You think that’s bad? I’m from North Carolina, but I live right outside of London. This is the kind of news that appears in the British press about the south:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7024124.stm
(and this is the kind of news that makes me love it)
I’m glad you made the trip to Bama, hope you come back soon. Ya’ll come see us.
Hey, that wasn’t a scarecrow, that was me waving hello. I hadn’t yet made it to Starbucks.
wow….it sounds like there might actually be something in Alabama. Being from Mississippi (Go Dawgs!), I never liked Alabama all that much. It was like a 2-3 hour speed bump to get to Georgia.
Now, it sounds like good times were had by all.
Maybe I should re-think my position.
Anne, thank you so much for coming to my church and talking about Porn. It was amazing. I, like many others, struggle with porn. However, i did not realize it was a problem until a few months ago. This past sunday changed my life, thank you so much!!!
It was a great pleasure to meet you and hear the message you brought! Hopefully you enjoyed your brief stay with us. I also really enjoyed the lovely topics you brought up during lunch – between you and Helen, it’s a wonder I could even think about eating. ;-)