BatBPart IV: Let's Get Together ya ya ya

This is the fourth part of Beauty and the Beast: The Linda and Patrick Story. On the main blog, there is a list of all the chapters if you need to get caught up.

This is how clueless I am:

• Linda started coming home more often from APU.
  
  
• She would talk to me for hours in the church parking lot. Very often, it would be pretty close to 3pm before we'd leave each other.
  
  
• Other guys, seeing that we were getting close started asking her out...but I didn't.
  

In hindsight, I'm pretty sure a girl coming home more often from a college teeming with good lookin' Christian dudes and talking with you for 2-3 hours in a church parking lot (no doubt hungry hint hint Patrick) means you should ask her out. I'm going to have to teach that rule to my boys, because I sure missed out on that logic.

I don't even remember what we talked about. Was I charming? Not sure, but we went on and on like that, showing both Linda's patience and my cluelessness. It must have been pretty close to four months (Jan thru Apr).

Then I hatched the sweetest plan. See our church at the time decided to join APU during Spring Break in a week long missions trip to Mexicali. So of course, Linda would go right? Every APU student goes. Here's the conversation we had a couple of weeks before the trip:

Me: So, I'm going with the church on that APU Missions trip to Mexicali.

Linda: Cool. [All sheepish and cute.]

Me: So, I'll see you there? [I'm thinking man am I smart to have signed up for this thing, I'll see her there and we can flirt with each other...oh and serve people too.]

Linda: Um no I'm not going.

Me: Huh? [It suddenly dawned on me that not all 3000 students were going.]

Yeah, just call me clueless in the parking lot. Linda did say she would go if there was still a spot for her. I quickly told her I would call the Youth Pastor, who was heading the whole thing up, and get her in. Her spot secured I looked forward to the trip.

The trip was perfect. We went down there to camp out for a week and adopt a little town (Peligro which means Danger) and minister to the kids. We watched each other minister; her doing VBS and me playing soccer with the kids. I pulled out all the stops on this one...(single dudes take notes):

• I worked it out so we sat next to each other on the 16 hour round trip bus ride to and from Mexicali (all except a small portion on the way back when we told other people that we liked each other...and of course they told us...so Jr. High!)
• I made sure to fall asleep holding a baby during one of our lunch breaks.  
  
• We flagrantly flirted with each other, we were often found giving back rubs or just talking and giggling, even though there was a complete moratorium on flirting (which of course makes everyone want to flirt more!)
• I won over her mother by making her laugh. When she picked Linda up, at the end of the trip, I had my arms full of stuff so I waved at her good-bye...with my foot. It worked!

I think that was about the time I finally got that she might actually like me. That week, I called her and asked her out for a date. I went all out...Omelets, made by me, at my house (I still lived with my parents, don't forget I was 18).

A few dates later (May 3, 1990), we kissed...I know we hadn't even DTR'd (Defined the Relationship) yet! If you think of that Brady Bunch episode, where someone gets kissed and there are fireworks, it was like that...but a bazillion times more awesome. It still is now!

About a month later (June 1, 1990), we DTR'd. Here's how it went (we were out in the car outside her parents house...every once in a while her dad would flip on the bright Alcatraz driveway light to get Linda to come inside):

Me: Hey Linda? [Man I am smooth...like I practiced it a million times in front of the mirror!]

Linda: Yes [Still sheepish and oh so cute!]

Me: Wanna get hitched [Wait that's not what I practiced!]

Linda: Huh?!?

Me: You know...go steady, be my girl, become an item...exclusive? [Nice recovery Zalamea]

Linda: [Long pause...I'm sure because she was like who is this guy?] Yes.

Me: Did you just say, "Yes"?

Linda: Yes

And that was it...she was mine. For the first time in my life a girl, THE most beautiful and captivating girl in the world, wanted to be mine. I can't tell you how elated I was that night and still am to this day. Linda and I were made for each other, I sincerely believe that with all my heart. I am so glad that God brought us together and look forward every day to living life in complete unison with her.

That concludes Part IV of BatB. In the next installment we see each other every day the summer of 1990 and I drop the bomb on Linda...I'm going to Bible college...oh and we got chased by a Park Ranger on my ATV...

Vulcan MovesMe

Sequence of events:

Sunday Aug 31st (Yes less than one week ago.) - Took Harley ridin' Father-in-Law to the local Vespa Dealer...Dad not impressed at all, suggests looking into a small motorcycle, 250cc's or so. I'm told him no way I have the cash, that used Vespa he just test-drove was more than I could handle financially. He says no way a brand new Honda Rebel 250 is probably that much.

Monday Sept 1 -  I start looking into the Honda Rebel and find one I really like...a Burnt Orange masterpiece...in Burbank. But I have the funds to afford it.

Tuesday Sept 2 - No longer like Rebel, found a sweet Hyosung (Korean for Suzuki) GV250, that the cruiser crowd has been raving about. A bit beefier than the Rebel and much more powerful. There just happened to be a mean lookin' black one at Central Coast Mechanics.

Wednesday Sept 3 - Ask Harley ridin' Father-in-Law to check out said GV250 with me. He is somewhat impressed, but not totally. He takes me outside and drops a bomb...him and Mom want to help me purchase a more substantial motorcycle. He doesn't know anyone that ever bought an entry level machine and kept it more than 6 months. I'm dumbfounded...and mustering every ounce of manliness within me to keep from crying in front of him. So we check out some Honda Shadow 750's (to get an idea of what the 600s would be like) at San Luis Motorsports (SLM). Guess what? there aren't any...in California...Sold Out!

Thursday Sept 4 - Next to that Hyosung GV250 was a GV650, a Harley V-Rod look a-like that for some reason really caught my eye. It just so happened to be a 2007 and the great owner Brad was willing to cut me a great deal. I was ready to go right there...until I read 30 pages worth of problems with the machine (only in it's 3rd year of production...still working the kinks out). Another start over.

That night Harley ridin' Father-in-Law and I went to Bike Night down in Santa Maria. A weird happening once a month in a strip mall by the freeway that houses a Harley-Davidson, Yamaha, and Kawasaki-Suzuki store. The crowd was full of very interesting, yet very cool peeps. Dad and I both sat on a Raven Black 2007 Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Custom. I secretly really liked it, but the sticker was much higher than even the Shadow 750s we had been looking at. So I left it alone.

Friday Sept 5 - I started a comparison of the Vulcan 900, Shadow 750, and Yamaha V Star 600. This research did not end until 2AM the next morning. The clear winner for price/value...you know bang for the buck? Vulcan 900 Custom. AND I found a couple that were 2007 leftovers going for the same price as the 2008 Shadow 750! So being the weirdo that I am I created a table for my families reference that showed stuff like MSRP, Specifications, etc. And Hands Down the Vulcan 900 seemed the best value. And wouldn't you know it? SLM had one on the showroom floor...brand new...no miles...never been started, beautiful candy apple red finish.

Around 1AM I hit the jackpot a 2007 Candy Apple Red (Linda and I really wanted this color)...in Woodland Hills for less than the Honda Shadow. I was amazed! This was just the leverage I needed to bring to SLM or heck I could just go pick that candy apple cruiser up in Woodland Hills!

Saturday Sept 6 - A day that would live in infamy. The Woodland Hills dealer did me up one further...he gave me the OTD out the door price for the Vulcan 900! I had some cool chores to do (hung a shelf in our coat closet...thanks Harley ridin' Father-in-Law for showing me how to do this!) had some lunch and met up with Harely ridin' Father-in-Law to go see Kevin or Jake about the bike.

After galking at the Vulcan like tweenagers who just saw Zach Efron and making small talk with Jake we got down to brass tacks (what does that mean?). Could SLM meet Woodland Hills' OTD price...or at least save us a trip down there. I filled out a form, Jake went to Kevin's office (not sure what they were talking about in there) and then came back with an OTD price that was basically $150 more than Woodland Hills. We faked like we weren't impressed and tried to get a free Helmet out of it, but they didn't bite.

So I plunked down the credit card and as you can see this baby is sittin in my garage...not in the picture it's in front of my garage there, it's in my garage right now.

I can't tell you how much this gift means to me! Thank you so much Harley ridin' Father-in-Law and Safety First Mother-in-Law! Thank you for augmenting what amounted to a down payment for a 150cc used Vespa into a brand new 900cc Kawasaki Vulcan Custom (yes that's 750cc's worth of growth in one week). I can't thank you enough!

I'll leave ya'll with this picture (Yes that's a big smile on my face):

I Wannas Clarification

Pictured here is the new bike I'm interested in. It's a 2008 Hyosung 250cc Aquila. Hyosung is a Korean motorcycle manufacturer that has been around for 30 years and for much of that they have manufactured Suzuki bikes for much of that time. Many of their bikes are found all over the world...just came to the states in 2000 I believe. Oh, I got my Motorcycle permit today.

Being a man (we only have so many words to say or type) I shortened the conversation I had with Linda in my last post. I wanted to expand, because it was a great blessing!

Let me first set the stage...we had been discussing a financial dilemma and we were wondering what to do over the phone...

Me: We should use some of the vacation pay I'll have left to help out.

Linda: I really think you should use that for something that you want. You've sacrificed so much and learned a great deal about contentment the past 6 years you deserve it.

Me: Silence (well honestly there was a bit of whimpering as I started crying...seriously men cry)

Linda: You still there?

Me: [whimpering some more] uh-huh

Linda: I know you've always wanted a big flat screen TV, who's whimpering in the back ground? Are there baby's there? Or maybe a used Vespa or something?

Me: I'm crying right now [I at least wiped the tears with a whole sheet of Brawny paper towel so that was manly right?]

Linda: Ah hon...I love you. Thanks so much for hanging in there and allowing God to teach you so much, we should figure this financial situation out without that vacation pay out.

Me: I gotta hang up now, because someone is going to walk in to my office and ask me why I'm bawling my eyes out.

I often tell people that Linda is my Ezer Knegdo(sp?) the hebrew word used in Genesis for helpmate (whatever that means). I like the translation life saving companion. She saves me in so many ways, more than most people will ever know this side of heaven.

As men we ought to be doing our duty, taking care of business on the homefront and at our jobs. Sometimes in can be gruelling, sometimes a joy...but mostly gruelling ;) It's been such a joy...a life giving gift really to be able to think about flat screens, a vespa, and now some sort of entry level motorcycle.

Thank you so much my love! I'm so sorry that I have run away with the I wannas a little bit. Linda know that way more than the thing(s) I've looked at purchasing, I treasure that you thought of me...I love you and your heart! Thank you!

Major Case of the I Wannas...continued

If you didn't read my Major Case of I Wannas blog this won't make any sense.

So the I Wannas didn't stop. I'm going to be getting a little bit of money when I switch jobs as a pay out for Vacation earned. Linda and I discussed using that money on something "for me." That got me spinning on what that something might be.

Tops on the list are a big screen TV or a large down payment on a Vespa LX 150. I entertained notions of doing both, but it's just not enough money for both. So I'm stuck with an either or situation.

So I took my Harley ridin' father-in-law to ride one of those Vespa type things. Needless to say he was quite unimpressed. Using words like "squirrly" and "it's a scooter" [said with disdain]. Then he made the error of telling me there were actual motorcyles in the same exact price range that were decent beginner motors.

That got my mind spinning and all of a sudden...at least for now the big screen is on hold and so is the Vespa.

The above picture is a 2005 Honda 250cc Rebel in Candy Orange paint (I think the only year they offered it). According to most of the reviews I've read (a vast majority women) this baby hauls AND gets up to 70 MPG!!

I'm seriously thinking about it...but there is a lot to think about.

So stay tuned...I have no idea where this Wannas journey will take me, but it sure is fun (at least for me!)

Oh and stay tuned...I think I should have Part IV of BatB in the can in the next couple of days...

Josh's First day of 3rd Grade

Well today and tomorrow I am a single dad. Linda's Uncle passed away and she and her parents went down for the funeral. Today was Josh's first day in the 3rd Grade (hopefully he won't need first aid).

Here are some pictures...Linda come home soon and enjoy the pictures.

Cars and Romance

So while you are waiting for the next installment of the BatB, I thought I'd entertain you with some of the cars that I've had while I've been with Linda...and the two before because they were so cool!

Ready? Here we go:

Pre-Linda
First car 1965 Ford Mustang coupe...sweet car. We used to call it 10/10 looked good from 10ft away and/or 10 MPH. I still love that car though. (Looked a lot like this car it's a 66 though and it had a hood scoop with centerline wannabee chrome wheels.)
Second car 1970 Ford Mustang Mach I 351 Windsor w/ Cleveland heads bald tires and a sweet handling package. I often blew the doors off of new Corvettes just for fun! (it actually looked a lot like this one, but the paint was a lot dingier and cracked and peeling)
With Linda
Mid 80's Yellow Nissan Sentra (couldn't find a banana yellow one so use your imagination). My parents bought this car so our illegal nanny from the Philippines could drive us to school...without her license. Then she ran away with the baker from our bakery/coffee shop in the Wilshire District. I'm not kidding...


Mid 80s Ford Ranger 4x4...many of you don't know this about me, but I used to come up here to the Central Coast to ride ATVs in the Oceano Dunes. We bought a truck very much like this without the roll bar and push bar to tow our RV out of the sand. We'd get the RV and trailer full of toys stuck in the sand and then pull it out with this bad boy...only problem is it was cheaper to just pay the tow guy to get you out and we used to pay him to get this truck unstuck too...bunch of Filipino yahoos.
We spent a lot of our dating relationship in this truck...good times.

1980 Honda Accord (aka the mistake from you know where) this car was a piece of junk, but I really liked Linda's car so my parents bought this for my sister...then she pawned it off on me, which I deserved because I helped make the decision. Linda's looked like this one, but brand spanking new...like it came off the show room floor 10 years earlier. If you ever get a chance to buy a Dean Durand (Linda's dad) owned car you should pay $1k over blue book and you'll be glad you did.
Mine was...you guessed it Banana Yellow! It stunk and the seat in the back was completely deteriorated so nobody ever sat back there.

Early 80s maybe late 70s Buick Regal (I think) I can't even find a picture that does this car justice. I got kicked out of my parents house and had to give up the sweet Honda Accord (blah) and bought this baby for $700. I made weekly payments to my roommates friends for it. It ran like a charm and had a bench seat hubba hubba. Needless to say when I moved back I sold it to some people that only spoke Spanish.

1992 Honda Civic DX hatchback white with black trim. We used to call it the Panda car (get it Patrick and Linda put together?)
I always wanted to trick it out like this, but never had the $$ or the gumption to steal to get it done. It was bone stock...steel wheels w/ hubcaps and everything. I think I put a sweet stereo system in it but that was it. I remember getting a terrible deal on it...it was so bad the sales person was apologizing and i was going, "What don't normal people spend $14k on a $10k car and get a loan for 14% interest?" I was really bad with money back then...

We took the Panda into our marriage in 1994. I hope you enjoyed this quick tour of the cars during our 3.5 year dating/courting relationship.

FYI we sold the panda and bought a Toyota Corolla (we aren't sure why now). Then Linda's parents gave us their newer Toyota Camry for whatever we could sell her 1980 Honda Accord for. We still miss you Sunny Car! Where are you? If only we had a 3rd garage that baby would be on blocks or in a museum in Japan somewhere...

We sold the Camry for a 1996 Volvo Station Wagon (you may see a college aged woman driving it around town with a Calvary Sticker in the back window) and the Volvo turned into our sweet 2006 Toyota Sienna. Regardless of popular opinion Mini-vans are awesome. 14 cupholders in that baby and it's sweet at the drive-in. I crashed the Corolla or a lady turned left in front of me and that turned into our sweet 2000 Honda Civic that my friend Chris keeps trying to get me to sell to him.

Don't tell Linda, but someday I want one of these...

Disneyland on a budget...

Sorry we were away from internet for a few days...it's so very difficult! I promise the BatB story will continue asap. Hopefully we haven't bored you to death yet. Linda and I are getting a great kick out of it.

Anyways we are tired and ready to rest at home after 3 days at the Disneyland Resort. Linda and I found a great place to stay right across the street from Disney California Adventure Park called the Anabella Hotel.

It was a fantastic hotel...I'm talking it should have been $200 a night not the $115 (w/ parking) we paid. It was only a 15 minute walk to the Disneyland entrance, we never started the car once we parked it in front of our room.

It was a great deal and we'd stay there again. In fact, we probably have to since we just bought 4 annual passes!

BatB Part III: Movies and Blue Corn Chips

This is the third installment of Beauty and the Beast: The Linda and Patrick Story. Catch the other parts below.

I finally had the excuse to nonchalantly ask people about Linda, since everyone could see that we got along famously (see crash and burn conversation in Part II). Here's how the conversations went:

Me: Hey other college group person (OCGP) howz it going?

OCGP: Hey Pat (that's what they called me back then in the 80's) how're you doin?

Me: Good...wow the sky is so blue and so was the sweater dress Linda was wearing last Sunday, do you have any idea where she is? (Very tactful and nonchalant eh?)

OCGP: Ummm she goes to Azusa Pacific University. (At this point OCGP is thinking should I really tell this stalker?)

Me: Oh yeah? Where is that? (This is before the internet and google maps really took off...remember 1989?)

OCGP: Ummm Azusa.

So using my own brand of investigative journalism and private detectiveness I found out that Linda was 30 minutes away and only came home some weekends because she was busy with school and choir. Every day that went by I wondered when she would be home long enough for me to win her heart.

A couple of weeks after Thanksgiving she got out of Azusa on Christmas Break (I think they call it that there because it's a Christian University). I started seeing her at the College Group where we had Sunday School and mid-week Bible study.

After one of those studies me, Linda, one of Linda's Good Friends (OLGF), and an OCGP we'll just call Muscle Pants (because he always wore them) were sitting outside talking. One of us had the great idea to go do something together (this was before Starbucks was on every corner).

We all decided to head to Blockbuster (the analog version of Netflix for all of you born in the 80's) to rent a movie and then watch it at Linda's house.

Now you have to remember I was a brand spanking new Christian, which is to say I thought I had joined some form of the Amish. I was always surprised that these holy people watched movies. I was also surprised that Linda had invited us over to her house while her parents were out of town. In my old days that was code for...who's 21 year old cousin are we going to call to get us a keg...

But I digress...after almost an hour of perusing Blockbuster with me and Muscle Pants offering movies like Robocop and Rambo, but getting completely shut down, we found the perfect movie: Say Anything. Yes that was the movie we would watch. How can you go wrong with John Cusack.

At this point I should tell you that I was flirtin it up with Linda. I was pulling out all the stops, well as much as you can in a Blockbuster. I pretty much walked around following Linda like a lost puppy, but not looking like I was following her around...know what I mean?

I would do things like open the door to where the refrigerated Cokes were (why are those at Blockbusters anyways?) so my pecs and bicep muscles would flex. Again she was completely unimpressed.

Or I would show how well rounded my movie viewing was, I mean I didn't just like things like Robocop and Rambo with just a bunch of shooting. I liked stuff like Above the Law where they used Martial Arts to kill and maime. (I'm just glad I kept my love of Star Trek a secret). Linda was still unimpressed.

What does a guy have to do? Well we brought Say Anything back to her parents house. I think she made us some popcorn, but for health reasons she brought out some blue corn tortilla chips for herself, which are much more common now than they were then (there were only a handful of Trader Joe's back then).

I said something like, "Oh how like totally like awesome! I like totally eat those like totally all the time!" She looked at me the way I wanted her to look at me after flexing my muscles to get a Coke at Blockbuster. Like she was finally impressed. YES! Score one for the Patman...(nobody called me that I just made that up)

We watched the movie and I was mesmerized. It was like I was watching our prophesy right there on her parents television screen, in beautiful Hi-Fi VCR man! Except for the station wagon part and the Dad being a crook and a few other things this movie is our story.

See I was kind of the weird crazy ADHD guy that was into kick boxing (sport of the future) and quite head over heals in love with the Game Show Hostess/Valedictorian. (BTW Linda recently revealed to me that this was the night she knew she wanted to marry me...honest! She was just coy about it for 4 more years because one of us had to graduate college.)

After the movie we parted ways. Muscle Pants was trying to horn in on my lady and stayed a while longer. I was somewhat worried until I remembered...he wears muscle pants all the time.

Fast Forward to a College Group movie night within that same Christmas Break (apparently private colleges have like 2 months off because I think this was in January 1990). We were all sitting around at Don's house, he was the Deacon in charge of corralling us college peeps, trying to think of a movie we all could agree on. (We had already seen Princess Bride like 12 gazillion times since I got saved in November.)

We decided to send a few of us to Blockbuster to pick a couple of movies, you know the old Joshua and Caleb spy out the land kinda thing? Well Linda was very vocal about how picky she is with movies. So I volunteered to represent her choices, because we had shared blue corn tortilla chips.

Well needless to say four of us went to Blockbuster and were gone for about 2 hours. Remember OLGF (one of Linda's good friends)? She was with us and was playing a prank on me. She told me that Linda loved Bobcat Golthwait. And I bought it because you know she is OLGF and at this point Christians were still kind of a mystery to me and maybe they all just liked Bobcat for some reason.

Since none of us had a cell phone (they were the size of a cinder block) we couldn't call ahead and see if our movie choices were any good. We brought back Spaceballs and Hot to Trot (which really was some of Bobcat's best work...not). I could only guess what Linda was thinking, because she was thoroughly disgusted by both movies. Do I need to remind you that I was her representative? Oh my gosh! All the points I had made with the blue corn tortilla chips went down drain.

I was absolutely sure she hated me, big time! But you know what she started coming home more often from school...

This concludes Part III. As a preview I will tell you that we actually DTR in Part IV. It's a beautiful story of long talks in the church parking lot, other college group boys trying to get my girl, and a little town in Mexico called Peligro (Danger). Until next time...

Major Case of I Wannas

One of our friends does this thing with her kids when they whine about wanting something at the store. She says, "You seem to have a major case of the I wannas right now! Maybe you should think of some things you are thankful for instead."

Well I have a major case of the I Wannas! At first it started out as a need (aka I could save so much on gas) but to be really honest I just want to have a Vespa LX 150 in Excaliber Silver (the one pictured is the right color but it's a 200 or 250).

See the thing is people will say, "I bought a Vespa because I could save on gas"...well how does that work when they cost 5 G's out the door? Even if you saved $200 per month (which I don't think I would since my sweet civic gets 33 MPG) that would take 2 years to get back. So really I would just be taking the gas savings and paying for my I Wannas.

But man it looks so sweet at the dealership! Then I got some bad news...soon everyone who rides a scooter that goes over 30 MPH (the one I want goes 68 according to the owner of the dealership) has to get a motorcycle license.

Oh well...that was fun while it lasted, but I still want one.

Adventures from the Book of Virtues

Faith, Courage, and Honesty

But Dated, and Not Very Engaging

CoachZ | 08/12/08 | TV, Previews, On DVD

The Adventures from the Book of Virtues series includes: Adventures in Faith, Adventures in Courage, and Adventures in Honesty. These videos are a bit dated, which is not why I only recommended a rental. They just don’t bring the “moral of the story” home.

If you didn't already know these are not the full review. They are excerpts. To see the full review click on any of the links below the title.

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).

Beauty and the Beast Part I: How it all Began

Our fifteenth anniversary is just around the corner so I feel inspired to journal how Linda (the Beauty) and I (the Beast) found each other. I can honestly say I am more in love with Linda now AND that she is even more beautiful to me. Linda, I love you more than I can say, like the Beast I can't imagine where my life would be without my Beauty...

It was the summer of 1989; I found myself graduated from St. Francis High School with no idea what I was going to do with my life. I had basically wasted my High School career away with parties and just enough effort to squeeze out a B+ average. I had been accepted to Loyola Marymount University, but couldn't afford to go so I was headed to Cal State Northridge (CSUN).

I was kinda together with a girl my senior year, meaning we saw each other but it was never official...I know weird huh? Even weirder was that summer she broke up with me. I'm not sure how that works when we weren't really together, but it was still quite devastating. Honestly it messed me up pretty bad.

My family was having financial difficulty that year, my Dad had recently started in Real Estate...yup in the late 80's when Real Estate wasn't doing so hot. That summer my family had a vacation trip planned to San Diego, "camping" at Campland on the Bay. I had a great excuse not to go; orientation at CSUN...right. My brother decided to steal a bike from someone at Campland, because someone had stolen his back home.

This is why I call myself the Beast, I was a mess; scholastically, relationally, spiritually. A big time lost mess...but it all started to change that summer.

So after my brother stole that bike my Mom had enough. There was a non-denominational church service at the campground that Sunday and she went. She started getting really interested in a very different Christianity than we were used to as Catholics. She started going to the Baptist church near our home and dragging everyone in our family...except me.

See I had endured 4 years of all boys Catholic High School. I was Roman Catholic through and through man! I remember the fights we would have and how I all of a sudden wanted to go to Catholic church every Sunday. Until...

I can still remember it, I was in my room surrounded by pictures and mementos of my "glorious" High School days. It was a Sunday morning in mid to late August 1989 and me and my mom were having our normal fight. "Come with us to Baptist Church tomorrow" [said in her oh so evident Filipino accent]. "No I'm not going there, they read the Bible and pray to Jesus...and that's plain weird! I'm staying Catholic!"

Just as my mom was about to give up again she said, "Well just come to the musical tonight." Can you imagine the scene? I'm 18 years old, two earrings in my left ear, the sweetest Filipino mullet you've ever seen, and I was probably hung over from the night before (not to mention probably wearing a fluorescent green muscle T with acid wash jeans); "Sure mom I'll go to the church musical tonight." Did I just say that?

She was so freaking happy and I was stunned. Did I just promise my mother that I would go to a church musical? I am way too cool for that! But I was stuck.

So that night I piled into the car with my Mom, Dad, sister, and brother (thinking I'm 18 I should go in my own car...wait I don't have my own car.) During the musical I did my best to show that I was too cool for all these old and young fuddy duddys. I kept wondering what my party buddies Bruno and Dom would think if they knew I was here. Then it happened...

The end of the musical had finally come and I was visualizing in my mind the fastest way to the nearest exit. I was all of a sudden woken out of my day dream with the most beautiful sound I have ever heard and THE most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

I don't remember the song or the words I just remember the girl. She was wearing jeans with a kind of handkerchief belt and a t-shirt and big beautiful 80's hair. I remember the sweetest sound coming out of her in song...I was quite literally mesmerized. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. As she walked around the stage (remember Baptists aren't allowed to dance on church premises) and sang her solo I fell head over heals in love.

I remember thinking two things; this church can't be all bad and I'm gonna marry her someday. Yeah and Beauty is gonna fall in love with the Beast...right!

I would love to tell you that when the lights came back on and the cast was taking their bows our eyes met, it was love at first sight, and we ran into each others arms in slow motion; but that's not what happened. We'll cover some of that in Part II. For goodness sake comment and let me know there are actually people reading this blog!

I'm a Presidential Hopeful...Apparently

Bathroom MoveMe

So yesterday, I went into...well you know where to do the morning routine. We have My Utmost for His Highest in there, so I broke it open. The passage was on disillusionment (click on the word disillusionment to see the passage...this template doesn't do links well) and I have to say it MovedMe! (Pun somewhat intended)

Recently I've been really contemplating the whole concept of idols, some call them Functional Saviors. In other words, anything that we put in the place of Jesus in our lives. Specifically I've been wrestling, and more so watching others wrestle, with people bing our functional saviors.

Sometimes it can be church leadership or a boss or a spouse or even a doctor or therapist. If we see people as our actual savior rather than someone Jesus can use to help us, then we will be unhealthily disillusioned.

I say unhealthily disillusioned, because you can be healthily disillusioned! It really depends on your reaction after you realize that people or a certain person isn't your savior or idol, isn't going to save you or make your life better. Is our reaction bitterness, cynicism, and suspicion (unhealthy) or does it bring us closer to God realizing he is our all in all (healthy)?

Linda and I went through a horrible church split over 10 years ago. It rocked our worlds! Now I realize it rocked us so hard because we had put our faith in people, functionally. We didn't do it in words or make a statement of faith towards the Elders and Deacons, but our actions and our reaction to the split showed we had put them on a pedestal they did not belong on.

I also realize that God had ordained it in our lives so that we would grow closer to him and more dependent on him...and we have. For a few years there we were right on the edge of the bad disillusionment (well Linda was on the edge, I was full on there). If Jesus hadn't have come in a huge way we'd still be bitter, unusable Christians.

I know it's crude to talk about the other kind of movement, but while that was going on God was working in my heart. Moving me towards taking a new inventory. What functional saviors do I have in my life right now? What people have let me down? How am I reacting to this disillusionment?

How about you?

The Dark Knight

Is Batman a Christ Figure?

Redefinition of Hero and Villain

CoachZ | 07/25/08 | Movies, Reviews

This is a great movie, full of twists and turns, a bit disturbing yet at the same time thought-provoking. The thing is, in real life there is no man like Batman, but there is Jesus. He came to save us and He is the only one who can.

Dark Knight

I know I usually have a picture of the title of the movie sent from my cell phone from within a dark movie theater, but this movie didn't have a title at the beginning! I almost ran my cell phone battery down waiting and realized it just wasn't coming up. So a picture of the tickets will have to do.

This movie is good...REAL good. It's like nothing I've seen since...well...the first one! They really stepped it up. Go see it and come back here. I hope to start writing my thoughts tonight and have them on HollywoodJesus by next weekend.

Hispanic?

Does this ever happen to you? We get a lot of Hispanic stuff in the mail...like this magazine or ads for AT&T or whatever all in Spanish.

Filipinos generally have Spanish last names since Magellan (who is Portugese) "discovered" the islands and took them for Spain. So I sort of understand...but not really.

The stuff I really love is when I get perfume samples or what not because my first name is Ariel. Hello? Heard of Ariel Sharon or Ari Fleischer? Those are dudes and so am I!

Comprende?

Nikon D40 w/ 55-200VR Lens & 2GB HDSD Card!

We just couldn't choose a Point & Shot OR a DSLR! The combo of George Bush (I wonder if drilling in Alaska was just as good of an idea as the economic stimulus package?) and Costco having a deal on the wonderful Nikon D40 extra lens AND 2GB super fast SD card led us to just buy one of each.

I hope Linda posts some of her sweet artistic pictures on her blog and/or she creates a flickr acct soon cause she's REAL good.

Here's a sample:



Oh btw we are thinking about naming our camera's...none other than Lord of the Rings characters or items. Any thoughts?

Lazy River

This is a portion of the Lazy River at the Timeshare resort my sister and brother in law have. They invited us down and it was quite affordable!

We sat in this river and the pool(s) on the property quite a bit, because it was 110 degrees just about all the time! But it was a dry heat so that makes it better right?

Anyways, as I was floating around on the Lazy River I kept on trying to go with the flow. But then I or Jason would have some other idea and there would be 5-10 minutes of struggling against the flow, interrupted by 2 minutes or so of actually floating.

I started thinking this was a great metaphor for my life. Summed up in one word "Striving". Instead of being still and knowing God is good or putting on his burden for it is light; I tend to strive.

I've been talking quite a bit about my job situation, but it's been such a learning experience. To let go; and let God...to learn so much about selfishness and contentment by no longer sending resumes out and looking for a new job for the last year and a half. It's been so freeing like the 2 minutes of just floating on the lazy river.

I so want to let God guide and provide, instead of me "making it happen." That is no excuse for laziness for when he calls me to action I'm ready to pounce, but to really be still and wait for HIS call and not my inner demon that wants to "make it happen NOW!"

Well that's what MovedMe about sitting in a little pool noodle seat in 110 degree dry heat on a great little Lazy River in Indio, CA.

Skadoosh!

So I went to see it while on vacation in Indio, CA just south of Palm Springs. Yeah 110 degrees + tired of being in the pool or lazy river = go see a movie in an air conditioned theater. This was Jason's (3 year old) first venture into seeing a movie at the THEATER! He did pretty good...not great but good.

I think there were some pretty hilarious parts. It wasn't a MoveMe kinda movie, but I really did like how Shifu is given a prophesy and he does everything he can to stop the prophesy from happening. Only what he was doing made the prophesy happen! Sound familiar? Think Pharisees/Rome and Jesus or even better things that happen in your own life...

May be more to come on HollywoodJesus, but haven't felt up to writing a whole commentary in a while.