BatB Part Deux: The Meeting(s)

This is the second installment of Beauty and the Beast: The Linda and Patrick story. Part I is below.

I looked at the program and found out her name, Linda Durand, aka my future bride. I went straight home and pulled my sister's year book out of her room, probably without knocking or asking...I know so rude. As I looked at her beautiful picture, I knew at that very moment that I was going to be Baptist.

All week I kept thinking, Why does a week have to take 7 days? I would have to wait a whole week before I could meet Linda. Finally after days of torture Sunday came along, the fateful day when I would meet the Beauty.

I drove, separately, to the church and went straight to the college group Sunday school class. You didn't expect me to go to the service did you? I figured I would meet Linda there. To my surprise, and yours I'm sure, I did not meet Linda that day.

I did meet the funniest, and best, Sunday school teacher ever...Don. I remember thinking, Christians can be funny and have a good time studying the Bible. Don was one of the Deacons at the church and faithfully taught us college aged people. I started going every Sunday. It was my first introduction to Jesus.

I thought it would be a little too obvious if I started asking some of the college group gang where Linda was so I just kept my mouth shut and hoped she would show up some day. In the meantime, I started going to CSUN in September.

My mom decided we were all going to start listening to KWVE, the Calvary Chapel radio station. At the time, I was driving a Nissan Sentra Sedan, banana yellow with banana yellow interior and my mom would check the radio station almost every day to make sure I was listening to KWVE. This is funny because I could have been listening to devil music up until a block away and then switch the station, but I wasn't. I was actually listening to KWVE.

CSUN is, or at least was, known as a commuter school and I fit that bill to a T. I commuted about 15-20 minutes each way, just long enough to hear Chuck Smith or Greg Laurie or any number of the great evangelistic preachers from the Calvary Chapel system. From September through November of 1989 I must have heard the gospel message at least 1,234,567 times, give or take a few.

That November something inside me changed towards Jesus. It's hard to explain in words, but the closest thing I can think of is that I fell in love with Him. I had heard of all He had done;came to earth to die for my sins and all, so I gave Him my heart...over and over again. I must have pulled over at least 10 times a day to pray with the radio versions of Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, etc. My life has never been the same...thank you Lord!

I'd like to say a lot changed, but I was still a bad student, son, and worker; but I had this joy...an in explicable joy that I have to this day. (All that other stuff Jesus has been slowly refining in my life.) I remember that my desires had changed; instead of going to parties and getting drunk I wanted to go on scavenger hunts with the college group, instead of listening to AC/DC I was listening to Michael W. Smith...I know it was weird! But I am so glad He invaded my life!

That same month I went to Sunday school and took my normal seat, kinda towards the back. Down the aisle came someone new, to me. She was wearing a blue sweater dress, but I could only see her from the back. It seemed everyone else knew who she was. Could it be her?

She sat at the front so i still couldn't see her face very well. It was a small room, but I still couldn't get a good look. I couldn't wait until the study was over so I could meet her. Finally, after what seemed like hours of looking at the back of her head, somewhat stalkeresque, it ended. I ever so nonchalantly made a beeline right over to her to both see if it was Linda and meet her if it was...it was!

Dream sequence: We locked eyes and instantly fell in love. Everyone and everything else fell by the wayside to the most romantic music you've ever heard and we both rode off into the sunset...in my banana yellow Nissan Sentra [screeching sound].

Here's what happened:

Me: "Hi I'm Pat, were you in that musical this summer?" [Yup just call me Rico Suave!]

Linda: "Yeah." She was thinking Is this guy a stalker?

Me: "I remember that." [That's gonna knock her off her feet.]

Linda: No response she went and talked to her friends.

So there you go...she wasn't impressed with my conversation skills. She was not impressed with my looks either, even though I dressed like Bobby Brown. Yeah, who wouldn't be impressed with a Filipino sporting a mullet, flowing white with big black polka dots shirt, and baggy pants a la MC Hammer. I was a little too ethnic for La Crescenta.

Anyways, I went home feeling pretty dejected. I mean I met my future wife and it just didn't go the way I had hoped. I'm not sure how I thought it would go but not so anticlimactic. I mean we met...that's all. No date, no when will I see you again...nothin. Until...

That's Part II (or Deux) hope you liked walking down memory lane with me. It's kinda fun. Part III to come...let's see it took 2 comments to get Part II how many comments will it take to get Part III (3 or three also tres).