watermelon, watermelon!

i was listening to the radio a minute ago and they're doing this contest where people call in and have to sing a christmas carol on air to win passes, and the radio dj started singing along with the lady saying "watermelon!" which is of course what you sing when you don't know the words.

however i had never heard anyone else in my life say this except my best friend daline. we used to go across texas a&m university campus singing beatles songs at the tops of our lungs (nowhere man, etc) and when we'd forget the words we'd sing "WATERMELON! WATERMELON!" and then bust out laughing. of course half the time we'd sing watermelon, watermelon just because it made us crack up. we didn't care what anyone thought, we were having the time of our life, and those memories i'll cherish forever.

i remember when i was going through a stressful time in my marriage, daline came to visit me when she was home visiting family as she always did over the holidays and she said something like "you were so much fun" and it was partially that statement that made me realize just how deadened i'd become... and post-divorce now, i am so much more alive and happy but it's still a process of reawakening and rebirth i'm going through. (nor would i say it was necessarily the marriage that caused it, but more of losing myself within the circumstances).

it is close to daline's birthday, and my life is so enriched by her friendship. god how i long for those days when we used to be so carefree. i was not carefree, mind you, i had a lot of angst from my childhood, but together in our joy and silliness we could let the world and the past and all its troubles slip away because we were only present in that moment. ok maybe we'd had a few too many to drink...but i rather think it is the deep and true friendships that saved me from any life of drug or alcohol addiction - and perhaps same for daline. with troubled lives and pasts, one can easily live a whole life addicted to some substance. i am very grateful that i'm not.

if anything i am addicted to work! and stress! and when i am stressed, i do tend to get grumpy and take it out on others (random phone salespeople - lol - and sometimes my kids, or others). a bad flaw, and one i am very thankful for grace... and i continue to work on it. the key is creating a stress-free environment, but also putting the yoke on jesus not myself, "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

speaking of stress, earlier i filled up a bowl full of frozen cool whip topped with a packet of hot cocoa mix, and it was just delightful. this was my stress relief sundae. a confection my kids call creamy crap delite. and then we danced our fool heads off to "shackles" on the radio by mary mary.

and then i got grumpy again.