running a fluourescent marker over notable passages.

1) One highlight of yesterday was having a seven-year-old recount a couple episodes of "Spongebob Squarepants" (1999-present) to me.  Not sure if he knew how much I like the show and wasn't humoring him but it was great.  Then the highlight of the highlight was when he said the name of the person who wanted to buy some exotic weird hat and we both laughed.  I believe it was "Wiki Babawa".  The kid couldn't get it out the first few times because he thought it was so funny.  I began laughing at his laughing and then when I heard it in full I laughed because it was silly + because I like Spongebob + I like kids.  It was wonderful..we both laughed real-ly and laughed harder cos the other person was laughing.  Aha.  It was such a great blip of pure fun and silliness in my day.  (This is also sort of an insight to why I like Sbob - that it's a blip of pure fun and silliness for 23 minutes.)

2) A highlight from last week: someone who has earned their way into the top five* funniest people I know told me they thought I was funny.  I almost thought I imagined him saying it.  I think I goggled a bit.

*I actually counted these out and they are the kind of people with whom I sometimes laugh before they've said anything.  I laughed to myself while counting out the list just now.  A name made me giggle. 

It came in the same breath as some other kind things so I think I wasn't expecting it.  "And... there aren't a lot of funny people in the world."  This seemed like a topic change. I agree heartily because I knew what he meant, all three layers** of it.  "You're funny!" he says, with deep sincerity and emphasis.  I laughed a little bit but didn't say anything because I couldn't believe it.  Coming from someone THAT funny (and talented at being funny) ... ...I was shocked.


**There's a lot of bad "comedy" (actually not comedy) in the mass media, there's not a lot of intelligent [overlaps with creative] humor in mass media or in our personal lives, and there's such a small amount of top-grade comedy in general (the stuff that's taken seriously as both a science and an art; the stuff with punchlines we're convinced we couldn't have seen coming).

3) Possibly one of the biggest highlights of the last couple weeks was forging a new friendship.  We've been casually chatting for a while but after I dropped an "I don't understand what you mean when you say this but it doesn't result in me feeling awesome; can you tell me what you mean?" bomb two weeks ago more work has been required and input from both parties.  More solid emails are being exchanged and on my end, I'm blessed by the depth and breadth of them.  (Perhaps this is an unconscionable thing to say in 2012, but people don't write stellar emails much anymore.)

Better, longer and more enthusiastic face-to-face conversations have transpired as well.  On Wednesday, something like an olive branch and a hand of friendship were extended toward me very openly and very sweetly.  (I'm still reeling from it because of the words used and the frankness.)  I understood the olive branch a sort of "let's hit 'reset'" suggestion but I didn't see the hand until the next day at the end of a different conversation.

My reciprocal hand somehow got stuck in my pocket and I couldn't yank it out.  The conversation ended and I headed to work.  Then the Holy Spirit pounced on me and wrote conviction all over my mind.  I needed to say something.  Imagine: I had to coach myself through it.  I didn't write anything down but I did give myself four main points on top of which anything else positive and true would be a bonus.  Emailing is easy and comfortable so I called.

Chuffed that my call was received so happily and that my opening silliness (a stalling tactic) was played right along with.  (This is also a sign of budding friendshippery.)  I decided to level and confess that I was intimidated and then I launched into my four points, the first of which being, "I think you're great."  Believe it or else, it needed to be said.

I issued Points 2, 3 an 4 with less difficulty than expected and was pleased to find I sounded like I meant what I was saying.  I also appreciated the silence at the other end of the line that was thick with intent listening.  With my captive audience I added that I had been consciously refraining from tangling my gratitude to God with affection for an involved person (because when credit is due God, we must give it exclusively) and added my correction of a statement from earlier that I thought needed correcting. It was his guess at my perspective [that I was disinterested] and I wanted to be clear [that I'm quite the opposite].  Without realising it, my hand was out as well, now.

Genuine receptiveness followed and small jokes were made.  It went super well.  It must be one of the most nerve-wracking conversations with the greatest payoff I've ever had.  We shook on it; we were friends.  We decided we could get on fabulously.  I am beyond myself stoked about this.  Seriously.


Number 4 just needs to wait because I am literally dozing off between sentences here.