Just Visiting

I'm not a good host.

Not because I don't try. Completely the opposite, in fact, but I guess the whole sheltered life thing is worse than I thought.

So, I had a friend from Rochester visit me for the first time, which was cool in that I got to see Matt again, but it also reminded me that I didn't really have any friends good enough to come out right away. And all of this is compounded by the fact that he's a better friend to the first guy I had a disasterous relationship with than to me.

Anyway, Matt comes in and we come to dinner at my work. The guy, aside from being intelligent and interesting, is also a deeply committed evangelical Christian. I forgot to ask him if that's how he defines himself, but as far as I can recall it's close enough.

So, most people would assume that we wouldn't get along, but we do get along. We had a long circular conversation about religion and I finally found someone to ask about possibly starting a Bible study online, and he gave me some tips and tricks. Turns out that we both use Bible Gateway for our online Bible needs, but he suggested a concordance to help me get started. He suggested two types of textual studies. The first is OIA, which stands for observe (and read) the text, interpret (and put in historical context), and then analyze (and if you're a Christian, adapt). The second is literary analysis, which helped him understand some interesting construction details about evangelism that I think are cool. Or at least, I think so. I forgot my notebook, so that's all from a hazy memory.

Depending on how well you know me, this is either odd or understandable. If you think it's odd, then you probably don't know enough about how much time I spend online at IIDB and CF.

Anyway, I love religion. Especially pop cosmology (i.e. angels and demons). It's a lot of fun, but I'm still an atheist. I have too many issues with the problem of evil and etc. to believe in a god.

I've been thinking of starting a bible study. At IIDB though, it would probably go in the Biblical Criticism and History forum, and well, I don't speak Latin, Greek, or Aramaic, so I'm worried that my intro level Bible study will get outpaced pretty quickly.

My own forum is dead, so, can't go there, and CF is so much worse than IIDB.

So, I'm kinda torn about what to do.

So, back to Bible Study . . . no, back to being a bad host. At the end of dinner, I showed Matt the check. I'd specifically reminded myself before dinner not to show him, and then I couldn't figure out the tip, so I had to show him how much it cost.

Darn it. Strike one.

The next morning, we drove up to Bandelier National Monument to see the cliff dwellings in the canyon. I'm not an early person, and I forgot the entrance fee. Matt had it, and I think he felt guilty about dinner (he shouldn't have, it was a treat for me too). Strike two.

He left that afternoon. About three hours later my mother is talking to me, and says, "Hey, did you feed him lunch before he left?"

Er . . . no. Darn it. Strike three.

So, yeah, I'm a horrible host.

Also, horrible other thing that happened real quick: S. mentioned that Mike might be worried about being physically affectionate with me when he's straight and can't back it up with sex.

What? He thinks what?

I'd date Mike in a second if he was gay, but he's not. I understand that. I'm not expecting sex from him, and darn it all if I was worried about our boundaries already. I really needed to talk to him alone so that I could set him straight on the whole physical contact issue, and I never got the chance when I was up in the 'burke this Wednesday.

So, Matt, if you're reading this, I'm sorry, and Mike, I'm not ever going to ask you to sleep with me.

Eh . . . I really just need to call both of them.