The season was fall, and the year was 2009.
We had known each other for a year, but had only recently started hanging out within the same group. Jamey was the kind of guy who you could instantly get along with. He's slow to judge and quick to engage. I had particularly associated him with a stage and limelight atmosphere. He was in a band that a lot of my friends would go see perform, and he just had the ability to display passion and personality via his microphone and electric guitar. He was a total rockstar. When he started to come around more, I was shocked to find out that he was more of a low-key,
introvert by day and fierce rockstar by night. I was instantly intrigued.
We initially connected on the fact that we both loved Jesus, but quickly after that we identified with our same love for Pop-Punk music. We were those twenty-something year olds who refused to let go of our early high school music. We would get so excited to talk about which bands we listened to
(and still do), and which shows we went to. We agreed on practically everything when it came to our taste in music. Something I thought I'd never find in someone.
I was from Long Beach, he was from Orange County-ish. I'm the type of person who has a lot of pride for the city I'm from, so when I heard that Jamey wasn't too familiar with LBC, I instantly wanted to show him around. We made plans for him to come to my place one random Wednesday evening. I was really looking forward to showing Jamey the places and spots that were really special to me. Most of the places I wanted to show him had to do with music, one way or another.
We started the night off by going to my favorite record store in Long Beach, Fingerprints. Neither of us (at the time) owned a record player, but I told him it was one of those places that brought me comfort. I loved walking up and down the aisles, and smelling the scent of aged music and books. I showed him the first CD I ever purchased: Lagwagon, "Plaidinum", and he of course laughed at the fact that I was into Punk music at 11 years old. I can also remember him spending a lot of time going through each and every record. Since I would frequent Fingerprints, I was done pretty quickly. He feared that I was bored and waiting on him, but it was then that I assured him
I'm the type of person that will always be honest. I told him,
"you don't have to worry about me not speaking my mind. I'll always be honest with you."
Reflecting back to that specific frame in time brings such a smile to my face. Not much has changed with Jamey and I. I believe that moment was a very crucial and pivotal moment for us. My initial goal for showing him Long Beach was to help him to see how awesome my city was. But, it turned out to be so much deeper than that. I showed him a piece of myself, and who I was. I let him in, and that never came easy for me. There was something about Jamey that made me
incredibly comfortable to share myself with him.
The rest of the night was full of driving up Ocean Blvd., with former Drive-Thru bands as our soundtrack. I'm sure we ate good food, and I'm sure we shared a lot of stories. It kind of becomes a blur to me. But one thing I know is that I felt so safe around him. I ended the "tour of Long Beach" by taking him to my spot. It was this area that overlooked the beautiful ocean, but was kind of hidden. It was there that I opened up to him about all of my pain and sorrows. I sort of, unintentionally, let it all out. He had proved himself to be a good friend to me, and to be someone who wanted to know me at my core. He reassured me that he passed no judgment on me,
and that he felt I was a good person.
Although we were merely friends that one random Wednesday in the Fall of 2009, I believe that was the moment our souls connected. I believe that day was intended to happen. It's one of my favorite memories with Jamey, because it was the first time I noticed him,
and I felt like he noticed me, too.
The rest is history. We are so in love, and so happy to be in each other's company. We still frequent record stores and he still takes way longer to look through records than I do ;).
But, I still reassure him that I'll speak my mind when I need to.
 |
| Engagement Photos: //Fingerprints //Fall 2012 |
Jamey, I love our love. I love that one random Wednesday in Long Beach that I got to share with you. I believe that although it may have been random to us at the time,
it was intended to happen to make us who we are today.
XO
Brenda
[I originally got the idea to blog about this because of Dani's post, "Ideas for the Stumped Blogger".
Thank you, Dani, for the inspiration to get out of my dry writing spell!]
*photo credit: Sarah Shreves
No comments:
Post a Comment