So I'm cooking dinner at the local shelter

[neebob]

with some co-workers, which is something we just started and are going to do once a month. It's fun, if you don't mind fielding weird comments from the residents. The shelter is affiliated with a church or something resembling a church, but they don't make a thing of it. I wouldn't be there if they did.

So I'm standing in the kitchen, and one of the residents - who had already said one weird thing to me ("I see some snakes and I'm gonna kill 'em," referring to my toes) and had told a co-worker who's very good looking and whose wife happened to be sitting nearby that she'd like to pick his bones - asked me, of all people, if we could pray over dinner. I must look like the prayer decision maker, or maybe I just seem authoritative because I'm very tall. She had first asked if she could ask me for a favor, which to me indicated that she had a big issue about not blessing the food.

I was tempted to tell her to just take her plate and go say her own prayer, but instead I said, "Uh ... you know what? I'm not the right person to ask. Go ask {the girl who works there}." She must have said no, because there was no prayer. My co-workers were amused.

Then on my way out, this guy goes, "Don't drink and drive - I have more kids out there than I know about."

Anyway, I resolved on the way home that the next time someone addresses me in a way that assumes I share their god belief, instead of feeling all squidgy and saying something that spares their feelings, I'm going to tell them I'm an atheist and throw the big ball of squidgy feelings back at them. Or maybe I'll ask, "Why would you assume that I share your religious beliefs?"