A Trip Down Memory Lane, Sort Of...

I remember the night I first met Michael. It was at the Blue Beat in Newport Beach on a weeknight. A friend of mine, W, knew Michael from the church we were going to, and he had invited her to come down and sit in with his trio at the Blue Beat that night. A couple other friends of mine joined us, too. I knew who Michael was, but I'd never talked to him before.

Anyway, W had a huge crush on Michael, so the main reason we went down there was so she could nurse her crush. I was just there for moral support, I suppose. W sang John Lennon's "Imagine" - not a personal favorite of mine. The place was practically empty, but it was the middle of the week. At some point in the evening, Michael came over to where W was sitting with me and my other friends and we were introduced. Much later on, Michael told me that after we'd been introduced, he'd asked W about me, and her curt response was, "She's not your type!" Once we got to know each other better, he thought that was pretty ironic of her to say that. Then he said, "I guess she doesn't know my type!"

A few months later, I started singing with the praise band at the church, that's when I began to get to know Michael. I was sort of dating someone else, though, and so he really wasn't on my radar the first of couple of years that I knew him. But, I always enjoyed talking to him. He was funny and personable. So, even though we met in a bar, our relationship really started at church. I was there as a member of the worship team, and he was hired to play guitar (and sometimes bass) in the band.

I left that church eventually, and it split apart and was absorbed by Mariners Church. The church I knew had been called a mega-church, and it was for its time, but it was nothing like what Mariners has become. Michael played in the band there this weekend, and so I decided to attend one of the services to see all the changes, see him play, and, of course, worship. I was amazed at the size of the auditorium:

The building that we used to be in, is no longer their main auditorium. Michael thinks he heard them say they would be converting it into a gymnasium. Adjacent to this huge auditorium (it must seat four or five thousand), is a bookstore along the lines of a small Borders, and a full-on cafe. It's pretty amazing! They have created a place where people can hang out and visit after the service. If it weren't so far from where I live now, I'd be hanging out there!

As Michael introduced me to some of the other guys in the band this morning, he said, "This is my fiance, Joannah. We met here about fifteen years ago!"

It was sort of like everything came full-circle this morning.