waking up

This past day I’ve had battles for the #1 spot in my book of crazy days:

6:30 AM – First actual morning prayer at Haven (instead of holding the last one they came to my rescue when I had my tires slashed). God was really there… I got pretty emotional in the process.

8:00 AM – Ate good breakfast.

9-10:30 AM – Helped Nathan move the last of his goods from his apt to his new place.

11:00-1:30 PM – Mixture of napping/watching Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom with Nate…

2-8 PM – Helped set up “Driven” at the Angel’s Lounge – a Christian + secular artist fashion show/concert. Gorgeous models everywhere getting made up, dressed up, and doing the catwalk all around the room. Appreciating the beauty.

Somewhere around 7 PM – I see one of (what I consider) the most beautiful young women I have ever been in the same room with (more beautiful than the models, to me). Pretty sure I met her somewhere before (friend of my roomie)… and most likely at my apartment; I ponder going over there and talking to her.

8 PM – I go over and talk to her, saying, “I think I met you at Deny’s place… briefly… what was your name again?”

“No… I’ve never been to his place.”

“…”

“I’m _______.”

“Oh, that’s really weird… I coulda sworn… I’m Warren. Nice to meet you.” I nod my head and walk out. My friends agree that she is very beautiful as I tell of my plane crash.

8:30-9 PM – First band plays, I watch from behind the scenes to see if anything goes wrong. I see _______ standing with the models backstage and contemplate having the guts to say something else. Band finishes. I help clean up the stage like a madman. Roadies have the hardest job.

9-10 PM – MC banter and fashion show. Afterwards, I help set up the headlining band in the most ridiculous 25 minutes of stage tech-ing ever. I was so not qualified to help, but there was nobody else…

10:30 PM – Next band plays. I watch from behind again, and I see _______ again. I think about saying something to her again.

10:45ish PM – she walks out of the backstage area, almost as if she is going to enjoy the rest of the party atmosphere. I begin to follow… then I stop. Then she moves out to the rest of the club area as if she is about to leave. I follow again, and my heart is pounding.

10:45ish + 1 minute PM – I go over to her and cup my hands around my mouth to speak (it was pretty dang loud in there): “I dunno what I’m doing… but I don’t know if I’ll ever have another chance to say this. You’re the prettiest girl in the whole room… and I’m including the models. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet. Thanks.” And I walk away, a man. I brag to my pastor.

11 PM – Band starts to jam and declares open mic for freestyle, singing, and rap. I have the urge to do something about it. As I am contemplating the consequences, Elton leans over and says to me, “Hey… I’ll buy you lunch for a month if you go up there.” I know I have to. I wait as one guy gets up there and raps. I didn’t wanna be first.

11:03 PM – 11:05 PM – I sing the first verse of “Amazing Grace” to a Reggae groove in a minor key. I get the crowd to sing “Hallelujah” and “Praise the Lord” and I ad lib about how I’m leading worship. It’s a Christian/secular event, right? Couple hundred people. My head and heart are spinning. Have I gone crazy?

11:45 PM – I leave as the party is getting into the hook-up/freaking section of the night.

11:55 PM – I get pulled over for speeding. I was going 45 MPH in a 25. Ouch. Good thing I got an honest and well-intentioned cop, because he wrote 40 MPH, being nice. I woulda been TRULY owned if he didn’t (some law about higher than 15MPH gets you a bigger penalty).

12:10 AM – I feel like dying, and make a sandwich.

12:30 to 1 AM – Feeling like an inspired man (morning prayer), a tired man (long day workin’ myself), a real man (cuz of _______), an owned man (cuz of the speeding ticket), but mostly a real man. Now I’m not as scared anymore about approaching girls/crazy situations.

Goodbye, passive asian man.

Umm… a huge bunch of cars got their tires slashed in the middle of the night yesterday. Mine was one of them. Two tires, pfffffft.

You can’t escape pain!

Haven is giving morning prayer a shot now!

I am loving not working. I think being single helps, too. I have a whole lot of nothing to do, and I just fill up my time meeting with people! Google can wait. Or not.

So there is this young woman (weird to say lady or girl when she is my age) from San Jose named Daphne. I knew her from way back in my childhood. Our families brought us along to this every-month-or-so cell group thing with a few other families. Never really talked to her, though. She also came to BAAYF for a few years. Didn’t talk there. Then she showed up at UCLA. Kinda freaky. But still never really got to connect. My fault, mostly, there. And so I found out she had come back from a long trip, and was home in San Jose for the time being. So I asked her to have lunch with me. So, for the first time in like 13 years, we had real a conversation. It was funny. It was good. I’m thankful that God really works in lives other than my own. Talking with Daphne was like comparing notes that said “God is faithful,” “trust God,” and “live it out” all over them.

Too cool.