Lauren and Katie: United in Paleness

This week my dear friend Lauren was in town for a few days and I got to see her!

How we met
Lauren and I go way back-to my sophomore year at Baylor. It was after a rehearsal for a choir concert that I boldly went up to Lauren and asked, "Did you used to be in the Houston Children's Chorus?" You see, those that know me know I have a bizarre ability to remember people's names and faces-even from years and years ago. And I thought Lauren looked familiar and decided that she and I must have sung together in the chorus back when we were in elementary and middle school.

Well after giving me a look that said "You are weird, I am creeped out, how do you have this freakish ability to remember such things, but yes I was in the chorus," Lauren smiled at me and thus began our friendship.

In addition to attending Baylor and singing in one of the Baylor choirs together, Lauren and I were also members of Sing Alliance, a non-greek organization that participated in All-University Sing. While most of our time in Sing Alliance was spent singing (and Lauren has some serious pipes!), dancing and putting together a seven minute, completely student-produced production, Lauren and I bonded over some of SA's extracurricular activities. Namely torturing our Sing chair and friend Chris.

Here are Lauren and me, along with our friends Heather, Tracie and Shawna, after stealing the bench outside Chris' apartment and painting a threatening message on it. This incident earned Lauren the nickname "The Phantom"-partly because Chris never knew she was involved in this stunt (at least until the picture surfaced) and because she drove a cool silver car.

The next year Lauren transferred to Rice, where she finished out her academic career. Yes-Lauren is crazy smart, which is one of the many things I love about her. She can discuss literature like nobody's business and she has a vast vocabulary, which I very much appreciate. I still got to see Lauren during the summertime, and we spent many Monday nights together going to Metro bible study and laughing our heads off.

While at Rice, Lauren met Nathan Benesh, her husband. Nathan (who is also crazy smart) got accepted into Harvard's PhD program, so after they got married, Lauren and her hubby moved off to Boston.

Six degrees of Katie and Lauren
Meanwhile, my sister graduated from high school and went on to major in theatre at Baylor University. While there, she met a fellow thespian and theatre major named Deborah Benesh. And for those of you who are paying attention-yes Deborah and Nathan are related. Siblings in fact. Deborah and Lindsay became friends and realized that they were connected to each other and to us in a way only the Lord could have orchestrated.

When the opportunity presented itself (via Nathan having an internship in Houston for a summer, with Exxon- which is also my dad's employer), Deborah drove down from Waco and we all met up at my house to celebrate our connectedness!

Left to right-Katie, Lauren, Lindsay and Deborah

We discovered that we all enjoy doing impressions of velociraptors.

I think I said something that made Lindsay sad. Either that, or she was intimidated by our amazing velociraptor faces.

This picture involved the telling of a story about Deborah's favorite hamster being kept in the freezer.

Reliving the Baylor glory days.

My favorite picture of all.

Reunited and it feels so good!
Since that meeting a few years ago, Lauren has become a mommy to a beautiful little boy named Noah. This was my first time to meet him since he was born, and as you can see, he is precious.

It was so much fun to see Lauren again-to see how great she is as a mom, and to reconnect with her in person. Lauren has always been diligent about keeping up our friendship-even when it has been from a distance and even when I haven't been great at keeping up my end of the communication. Getting to visit with her in person reminded me what a blessing it is to have known her as long as I have and to still have her in my life. I am praying that the Lord will bring them back to Houston when Nathan finishes at Harvard next year so that I can spend more time face to face with my witty, intelligent, caring, talented and incredibly fun friend Lauren.