I had an okay time at the cookout, although my skills at making small talk are not refined enough for such outings to be completely enjoyable. About thirty parishioners gathered at the home of a big, loud, friendly Texan named "Hoot" and his perky wife Teresa. The relaxed Episcopalian attitude to alcohol came in handy: Hoot owns a liquor store and so we had all the beer we cared to drink. Our law student was noticeably bleary-eyed after five or six cans of Bud Light. I snobbishly preferred quality to quantity and had a bottle of Guiness and a couple of "Mississippi Mud" black and tans. Hoot also grilled heaps of burgers, sausage, and chicken in his own portable barbeque pit. So gorging on fatty meat and soaking in beer, we were not exactly infused with the Lenten spirit of self-denial.

The Blonde was there along with her equally impressive younger sister. An interesting girl, The Blonde: involved in mission trips and diocesan conventions, but also stays out until four at parties repeatedly broken up by the police. The ex-Baptist showed up, as did another guy I had only met once briefly before: a real estate agent who lives out in the country and commutes to Lubbock every day. Remarkably quiet for someone in his line of work, he also likes a good beer and classic rock, so we may get along well.

I forget that I'm not in the north anymore, and that closed-minded patriotism is still very much a virtue down here. At work, for instance, L. and D. were mortally offended by Natalie Maines' comments during the infamous interview, and approved highly of Peter Arnett getting the boot. So at the party, I was asking Hoot if he, being in the line of work he is, could get me some Calvados. He didn't know what I was talking about so I explained, "It's an apple brandy, distilled in France." A woman next to me said, in a friendly but serious way, "France? We're not supposed to be supporting France like that." Later in the evening as I was leaving she reiterated the point. Of course she was wearing a t-shirt with a Renoir printed on it, but it probably would have been in bad taste to point that out.