Archive for May, 2010
My Dear Ones Part II; My ChocolateBear
Posted by William in Uncategorized on May 26, 2010
My ChocolateBear
My best friends have always been grade based. Whenever I’d move from grade to grade, or 5th to Junior High, High School to College, my best friend would change. It would change based on sports we played, girls we liked, music we listened to, skateboards we rode and even the grades we got. I know its kinda a little kiddish of me to talk about my best friend, but whatever.
My first junior year in college during the new student orientation there was this annoying, loud, flower of a boy that announced his presence on campus with a vote for Josh Herndon for Freshman president posters. His campaign for office was more annoying than anything Obama has done, is doing and probably will do…okay not really, I just wanted to prove a point(Josh was never as annoying or ego-driven as our communist in chief). He also became an intern at the church that I was sorta going to at the time, so not only did I see this guy at school, I saw this guy at church. Awesome! So let’s summarize the next 4 months to say I loathed him. I told him later that I don’t know that I could have liked him less when I first met him.
Now for whatever reason this unofficial Cold War ended in Dr. Charlie Self’s 20th Century History Class. We started talking and I thought it was more of a taking the young kid under my wing and helping him to mature. The second step in the process was the winter ball that year. Both Josh and I were trying to impress the prospective ladies in our lives. Josh ended up marrying his date and I married someone else’s date from that night. The third step was the summer RA that year. I wanted to stay out of the house that summer so that meant staying on campus. Now this would be a very boring and dare I say lonely summer if I didn’t have a roommate. Now in Dr. Self’s class Josh and I were talking about the summer and he asked me about rooming together, and for reasons still unknown to me to this day, I told him yes.
When I told my bro, and my parents that I was rooming with Josh their immediate response was, “Herndon?”. My dad said that will be like watching a summer’s worth of Odd Couple episodes.
So Josh was working at Jamba the day we were supposed to move so I set up the room in a way that made sense for the ridiculous amount of TV we were going to watch, the amount of music I wanted to practice and generally trying to fit all of our crap. Now all of this was turning out so well until Josh showed up with the same bed sheets as me. I’m not talking about sheets that kinda look the same, I’m talking about the same exact ones. Now up until this point our room was going killer, and then it looked like a little boys room.
I didn’t work a lot that summer(Reagan Glover’s husband David was kind enough to get me a gig at his construction company, but we all know how handy I am so it didn’t work out too well), but I did get out every once in a while and one time I came back to Josh watching The OC. This started a bonding process that is still building.
We roomed together my last semester and during that six months we watched an unholy amount of Scrubs. And during the 6th season of the show there was a musical episode in which JD and Turk sing a song called, “Guy Love”. Now at first glance the song was stupid, and it wasn’t something I was going to listen again. But then during the second time I watched the music video, Josh blurts out, “It’s us!” The song is now like a theme song to our relationship.
So what is it about Josh that made me want to write a blog about him? Turns out Josh is one of, if not the most loyal person I know. I know that I can go to him with anything, and he’ll not look at me different. I know I can talk freely and honestly with him. I know that he is praying for me and Lauren, and he knows I am praying for him and Evie. We each need more friends like Josh. Our kids need youth pastors like Josh. Our kids need Uncles like Josh. I have a tendency to get misty-eyed when talking from the heart, so I wanted to write this out. Josh, I know your reading this and hope you know(if you didn’t already), you are my best friend and the person(after Lauren and Emily) that I look forward to seeing the most in my life. You are a valued friend, trusted companion and partner in crime. I’ve learned more from you than anyone else, save Lauren & Dom, and you will always hold a special place in heart.
My Dear Ones part 1
Posted by William in Uncategorized on May 25, 2010
My Dear Ones, Part 1
Writing this blog has enlightened me to why Pastors do series instead of stand alone messages. Quite simply put, it is easier to string together thoughts over a period of time instead of writing stand alone blogs that don’t follow one from the other. The Bethany Chronicles blogs were the easiest ones to write because they focused on a subject and then expounded on it. This past month I’ve been trying to figure out what life is. Life is not going to Foxnews.com and getting frustrated that socialists are trying to ruin America, it is not getting frustrated at the lackluster housing market and it is not worrying there is a snake in your backyard. For the record, I am terrified of almost everything wildlife including reptile and especially snakes no matter how big, small, poisonous, or non-poisonous. Snakes are Snakes…one tempted Eve and I don’t want one to bite me. Getting back on point – Stealing a phrase from one of my teachers, I’m devoting the next bit of blogs to the people around me that I care about, that I think you should get to know better, and that I want them to know how I feel about them. This series will be called my dear ones…and it begins now.
My Dear Ones part 1 – Lauren Briana Laing
Nobody I have ever met embodies love like Lauren. If I am to believe the great philosophers Lennon and McCarthy, and all you need is Love, then because Lauren is Love, then all I need is Lauren. Lauren completes me and yet makes me want to be more. Let me explain.
Lauren and my past is complicated. We didn’t like each other at first. I had long hair which she hated. She said she wasn’t going to date for a year, which was when I decided that I liked her and thought it would be a good idea to tell her so. She then cut my hair, we started dating and then I broke up with her on the 5th of July. We didn’t talk much the next year outside of arguing and a taco bell run after a Monday night Chapel. I went to Europe for 3 weeks the next summer and when I got back I needed a break from family and went to Rosy McCann’s and Pirates 3 with her. This wasn’t a date, it was dinner and hanging out. I was looking for someone cool to hang out, not a girlfriend. Not that I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, cause I was, just wasn’t Lauren at the time. Then she texted me that Monday saying, “thinking of you. Hope you are having a good day”. Then all of sudden I realized why I liked this girl from Napa in the first place.
We started dating again, I met her parents, her aunt and uncle, her adopted parents the Nedneys, she met my family and then we got married. We bought a townhome, went to Europe, had a puppy, and now are pregnant. It’s been a whirlwind of a two years. As satisfying as buying a townhome is, as satisfying as completing a Masters is, it wouldn’t be half of what it is without her. The highs are that much higher and the lows aren’t as low as they could be because standing right there beside me, she is. I got to do a solo for the Christmas show at Bethel Church a few years ago and someone mentioned to me that they couldn’t believe I was perfect all performances. Never told them my secret weapon was that Lauren was right there beside me before I went on and I knew she was right there when I got off.
One of the things I’m convinced about with Love is that first you have to be real for it to take hold, but then it is the world’s greatest motivator. Love should motivate the person who claims to be in love to be better. It should take a person from what they currently are, to what they could be. We all know the old saying that behind a great man there is a greater woman. I think its true. When people compliment me about accomplishments and such, I know its because of Lauren. When Lauren and I started dating, I didn’t have a job, lived with my parents, wasn’t in school and wasn’t involved with anything. The reason I believe that love motivates because I’ve never been this motivated in my life. And the thing of it is, it only gets better.
Lauren challenges me to be more compassionate, more giving, more forgiving, more flexible and more personable. She challenges to love in new ways, clean the house, tend the garden, run errands and give foot massages. And I love it. I love finding new things with Lauren. One of my favorite memories with Lauren is when we went up to Napa for her birthday last year. For years, since we live in the San Jose area, I’ve been able to show Lauren where we used to live, where I used to go to school, the local hangouts and such. She’s never been able to do that with me, except on this trip. We went to the deli, saw her old house, talked to her old neighbors, saw her old school and saw the hospital she was born at. It gave new life to Lauren’s backstory and new depth to my love for her.
I don’t know what the future holds for both us, but I hope and pray its many years of health, children and grandchildren, travels, music and prayer. I love her.
