So, I mentioned a little while ago that I had an unintentional absence from the ol' Blogaroo. I promised to have some more "insightful" blogs to come, and I haven't yet...sorry. But this is sort of like that. Part of my little introspective time I had been spending gave room for me to reminisce and appreciate where God has brought me and what He has done in my life. I was reading through old journals and looking through old pictures and something kept popping up in them: Jamie Sanders!
Most of you don't know this, but I met Jamie (theMovement's drummer) way back in high school...in South Dakota no less. He was a freshman, I was a sophomore, and we had art class together. I was actually the first guitar player he ever jammed with, funny enough. I remember the day, too, and I can almost remember the riff he had in his head that he wanted to hear out loud and play to that I tried to replicate that day in his room.
Through the years we made a lot of music together, soley in punk rock bands, but as soon as I graduated high school I high-tailed it back to Los Angeles.
Over the next few years, we kept in contact fairly regularly and I would visit annually, usually in the summer, sometimes Christmas. We would always spend some time together, and once he came out to California to visit me while I was at Bible College.
However, despite our close friendship, it wouldn't be until the day before my wedding that we really began building on the lifelong aspects of our friendship. He made a phone call to me while I was at my rehearsal dinner to tell me he wanted to catch a last minute flight to come to the wedding in August 2001 (4 years after I moved back out to California) saying that he had just been "thinking about a lot of things." I told him to hold off and come after the wedding so we could hang out. He did, and as it turned out, somehow in the month of August he had an intense experience with God, and hasn't looked back since.
Since 2001, we continued to make music together, but most importantly, his girlfriend Courtney at the time came out to visit with him to see what sort of crazy thing he had jumped into, and it was on that trip in March that she too had met the Lord on St. Patrick's Day in 2002 at theMovement. They got engaged while visiting again in summer of '02, and in the summer of '03 they were married (I got to be best man, yay!). Their honeymoon was a cross country trip to San Diego to start their new life while coming alongside all the great things that were happening out here.
So anyway, I spent a couple nights scanning in lots of photos, and there are so many random ones I didn't know where to start, so I figured I would start with a Jamie post. Outside of my family, he's known me the longest and has seen all sorts of phases in my life. It's actually pretty amazing that we are still friends (and I give all the credit to him for that).
So without any further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, I give you James Benjamin Sanders...
Here's just a fun random high school pic:
And here is a little ski trip we went on:
I swear to you, we walked in, all punk rocked out, and all of, well, those guys, all turn their heads at once when they hear the bell on the door ring, the record jukebox comes to a scratchy, skreechy halt, and some tumbleweed blows across the floor. And as luck would have it, the only open booth was in the back, which made it super fun to have to walk by all these guys as they stared us down, making rude comments under their breath. It was awesome.
Here's the lyrics from "Turn the Page," just to give you and idea of how it felt:
The following two were from the summer of '99, I was visiting out in South Dakota. Jamie was in a hardcore band called "the Refined" with a couple friends. Their guitar player couldn't make their farewell show because he wanted to see Alice Cooper in concert that night (yeah...you read all that right, his own band's farewell show...for Alice Cooper). Anyway, I filled in for him, which was funny because it made the line-up of the band the same line-up of a trash punk band called Hacker that the four of us were in together back in high school.
Most of you don't know this, but I met Jamie (theMovement's drummer) way back in high school...in South Dakota no less. He was a freshman, I was a sophomore, and we had art class together. I was actually the first guitar player he ever jammed with, funny enough. I remember the day, too, and I can almost remember the riff he had in his head that he wanted to hear out loud and play to that I tried to replicate that day in his room.
Through the years we made a lot of music together, soley in punk rock bands, but as soon as I graduated high school I high-tailed it back to Los Angeles.
Over the next few years, we kept in contact fairly regularly and I would visit annually, usually in the summer, sometimes Christmas. We would always spend some time together, and once he came out to California to visit me while I was at Bible College.
However, despite our close friendship, it wouldn't be until the day before my wedding that we really began building on the lifelong aspects of our friendship. He made a phone call to me while I was at my rehearsal dinner to tell me he wanted to catch a last minute flight to come to the wedding in August 2001 (4 years after I moved back out to California) saying that he had just been "thinking about a lot of things." I told him to hold off and come after the wedding so we could hang out. He did, and as it turned out, somehow in the month of August he had an intense experience with God, and hasn't looked back since.
Since 2001, we continued to make music together, but most importantly, his girlfriend Courtney at the time came out to visit with him to see what sort of crazy thing he had jumped into, and it was on that trip in March that she too had met the Lord on St. Patrick's Day in 2002 at theMovement. They got engaged while visiting again in summer of '02, and in the summer of '03 they were married (I got to be best man, yay!). Their honeymoon was a cross country trip to San Diego to start their new life while coming alongside all the great things that were happening out here.
So anyway, I spent a couple nights scanning in lots of photos, and there are so many random ones I didn't know where to start, so I figured I would start with a Jamie post. Outside of my family, he's known me the longest and has seen all sorts of phases in my life. It's actually pretty amazing that we are still friends (and I give all the credit to him for that).
So without any further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, I give you James Benjamin Sanders...
Here's just a fun random high school pic:
And here is a little ski trip we went on:
Here's us jamming in my bedroom...and yeah, those are velour pants I'm wearing. I still have that hat, the ALF stuffed animal, the flag, the Tweedle Bug necklace, and the guitar.
So, Jamie isn't tecnically in this picture, but what you are looking at is Steve arguing with Kristy over who would go pick up Jamie. This was such a classic conversation amongst our friends, I thought it would only be fitting to capture it on film. And I'm so glad I did.
Ah, a classic Jamie picture:
This is a great picture...not really because of Jamie though, but because of the back story. Look at the surroundings...is it any real guess that we are in the absolute middle of nowhere in South Dakota? I think it was "Flo's Diner" or something like that. Anyway, have you ever heard the song "Turn the Page" by Bob Seger? Yeah, that was this moment. We had just played in a show in Huron, South Dakota. Seriously, middle of nowhere. We were on our way back and stopped in here for a bite to eat.
I swear to you, we walked in, all punk rocked out, and all of, well, those guys, all turn their heads at once when they hear the bell on the door ring, the record jukebox comes to a scratchy, skreechy halt, and some tumbleweed blows across the floor. And as luck would have it, the only open booth was in the back, which made it super fun to have to walk by all these guys as they stared us down, making rude comments under their breath. It was awesome.
Here's the lyrics from "Turn the Page," just to give you and idea of how it felt:Well you walk into this restaurant, strung out from the road
You can feel their eyes upon you as you're shaking off the cold
You pretend it doesn't bother you, but you just want to explode
Most times you can't hear them talk, other times you can
All the same old cliches, "is it a woman, is it a man?"
But as you always seem outnumbered, you don't dare make a stand
The following two were from the summer of '99, I was visiting out in South Dakota. Jamie was in a hardcore band called "the Refined" with a couple friends. Their guitar player couldn't make their farewell show because he wanted to see Alice Cooper in concert that night (yeah...you read all that right, his own band's farewell show...for Alice Cooper). Anyway, I filled in for him, which was funny because it made the line-up of the band the same line-up of a trash punk band called Hacker that the four of us were in together back in high school.
