Friday, February 16, 2007

493...the legend continues

In honour (american readers, notice the 'u'...it's here to stay) of the arrival of the weekend I have decided to take a little break from reading and do something that I meant to do about 6 weeks ago but couldn't for various reasons (the largest being that I left my camera in Canada...).

Without further adieu, here are the men of 493 Cummer Ave. I wasn't good friends with any of the following before I moved in. Now, I love those guys. I would die for you fellows. (well, probably not Jason Penney, but that's besides the point). Regrettably I have no pictures of Ian Bastian- probably because I didn't see him for the last 1.25 years of living in the house...

Chris Clements moved in with us in late August of 2006. I worked with him on student leadership at Tyndale and we were always very cordial with one another. Then we lived together and quickly became a tag team who make light of other people living in the house. Actually we mostly spoke of Paul and Jay's friendship and marveled at how they were always having a conversation about something- no matter what time of day. My favourite part about living with Chris was our 15-30 minute chats most nights at around 11:30pm. There are many memorable chats- possibly the greatest occurring at the dinner table and involving prayer... sort of. I also appreciated Chris' music collection- this picture shows him either rocking out to phish or soaking in the spirit, i can't remember which time this was. Chris once said to me "Jesus didn't care about rule keeping, he cared about people keeping".. and also "beer and women are great, but not as great as a mystic relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ"- so true.

Paul Randall is one of the originals. Not only is he original because he was one of the first ones to live in the house but he's an original character and we love him. Here he is explaining to Ashlee Mackneer (aka: Ashlee Heather) probably something to do with one of the following a) the fact that Toronto was recently awarded a professional soccer team, b) Transformers the movie is coming out soon, c) that learning the Latin language involves much study or d) that Nintendo Wii is unfortunately unavailable at any store in Ontario, although if he pre-orders two there is a possibility that he'll be able to make a handsome profit on e-bay, as long as he gets it before Christmas. Paul's inquisitive nature is unprecedented- and he's probably one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. And this one time he asked out this great girl.. and even though she turned him down-he asked her out- and for that- we salute you. It was kind of like a 'Sandlot' moment... when Squints hooks up with that lifegaurd-- we know Paul will eventually hook up with the lifegaurd and be rich like Squints-
ps. Paul is even cooler than Squints, if that's possible.

This is Jason Penney. At the beginning of the post I said I wouldn't die for him. I would however take a bullet in my shoulder for him. What did I like about Jason Penney? Well, he was neat and he had clothes that I borrowed and he made sure we stayed relatively clean. He also likes to chat, so he was good for conversations, offering advice or simply someone to vent with. And he plays an excellent pirate, is a good guitar player and singer... and most importantly he owns silly putty. I think there was some tension in the house between us at points but probably because we have a similar type of personality ...but we got over that...he is someone who knows the secrets of Epiphaneia..as he once said 'Epiphaneia is you sitting around in your pajamas with your laptop, eating cereal and running this business' --shhhhh..don't tell... (ps, if you're a corporate sponsor and reading this, I completely deny his accusation).

This is Jason Locke. When I was a frosh Jay Locke was too cool for me, or I was too cool for him (as our argument goes) but, thanks to the Big Guy we have become wonderful friends. There aren't that many people in the world that I have more respect for than this man. Favourite times spent with Jason Locke include: 1am trips for breakfast at the 24 hour diner, our rescue mission through Buffalo after their October snow storm and the trip to Minneapolis/Winnipeg, playing poker and RISK (even though I despised you during RISK), bass guitar lessons, and your encouragements... one day we will own a city block together and use it to change the world.

In absentia are Chris Volpe, Jon Beckwith, and Michael Penny who all lived with us for a time.

So that's it. The house is different now. Pat Sutherland has moved in and Ian and I moved out, so I'm sure there's a different feel to the house. Looking back, for that time of my life I don't think there is any combination of people in the world that I would have rather lived with.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read your blog, and I'm not sure how else to message you on this site, so here it is, in the public eye :) Chris Lewis- I heard the other day that you moved out to the States. I know we never talked much when you were at Tyndale, but I wanted to check in- see how you are doing?!! It's good to read what you have to say- you have a way with words. God bless!!
Kristin Spino

I don't have one of these bloggers, but if you want, you can reach me at:
kristinspino@hotmail.com

C.D. Clements said...

Perhaps I will post in the public eye as well.

We corporately affirm your post.

Sincerely,

C.D. Clements

Anonymous said...

Chris

This is a late comment - but I just read your post. Wow. What a great tribute to 493 Cummer...(yeah laugh it up everyone, I've had phone calls from pizza deliverers just because they had to make sure - and recently my Uncle Larry stopped dead in the conversation because he didn't know if it was true or I was making a joke).

In reality, I guess we were really both too cool for each other. You ruled the jock clubs and I had the musicians, artsy and emotional types (though this was shared with Nathan Betts). God has certainly joined the artsy types with the jock types in one true new humanity (not alot unlike how he joined the Jews and Gentiles back in, oh say, 30AD forming a newly created humanity). I actually had this experience with Tyler Thrasher as well. But he didn't consider himself too cool to be my friend back during those days...

Overall a great post. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it - - and the JP comments made me laugh especially hard.

JL