Pseudo-Couth.

I was raised Catholic. I went to mass almost every Sunday when I was in New York.

I did the pretty white dress communion thing with the picnic afterwards. I did the Confirmation thing when I was a teen. Then we sort of fell out of weekly mass on Saturday evenings. Then I went to college, and that stopped, too.

Recently, I decided to start attending church again. It is very difficult in this area to find a Catholic church that doesn't solely have Spanish masses. I made a post on lovely Craigslist...in the Platonics section...looking for someone to come to mass with me.

My ad was replied to by one person who said he attended the cathedral of the Archdiocese in Buckhead and would be more than happy to accompany me to St. Catherine of Siena or to his church - strictly as friends. Great, I thought! He said he did a lot of volunteer work, etc. as well, and I questioned that (positively) as it sounded like something I'd like to get involved with.

He said, "great - let's meet up during the week for coffee or something."
Okay - that works for me.

Then I didn't hear from him. I sent him an e-mail, "hey are we still on for Sunday?"

Him: "Yeah - let's talk on Saturday. Gimme your number. This is the number that will call you."

Me: So I gave him my cell number saying "I'll be around all day Saturday."

Him: "Looking forward to Sunday. Talk to you soon."

Saturday came. Saturday went. No call. I know I could have called him, but 1) I was busy dealing with horse-idiots, and 2) I thought maybe something came up.

I wake up Sunday, I cook breakfast. I've already missed mass....God will forgive me. I clean the house and start doing laundry.

I log onto my computer and then into my e-mail, and I'm confronted with this e-mail:

"thx for tying up my Sunday and being considerate enough to call.....I'll say a prayer for you ....sounds like u need it."

Now, this shocks me. How rude can one person be? When someone tells you, "hey I'll call Saturday," and then doesn't. Then sends this e-mail. Why do you ask for someone's number and say you will call....then don't....then send an e-mail like the one above blaming the other person?

That doesn't seem very Christian to me. Since he said he would call Saturday, he very well could have. He knew what time my mass was today (8:30am) - why didn't he call or e-mail early this morning? How rude can one person truly be.

Next, one of my largest pet peeves is "text talk." "thx," "u,"uh! This person seemed intelligent when we talked. Now suddenly I feel like I'm being virtually confronted by a teenage whiny girl.

I send a polite (and short) note back that said, and reminded him, "I was waiting for you to call yesterday as you told me on Thursday, and you never did. Then I copied and pasted the e-mail from the other day in which he said, "I'll call you," and sent that along.

Now it doesn't bother me that I won't hear from this person again. Anyone who professes to be this stellar example of a Catholic....generally isn't.

It's the age-old thing about anything. If someone talks a big game all the time, chances are, they're not really as good as they claim to be.