A Stroll Down Memory Lane/Palm Bay High Halls

I've spent the greater part of today in my made-up bed either sleeping, looking out my window at my bamboo forest blowing in the crazy wind, or listening to music via headphones. I absolutely love love love music. I would have to say that most of my best friendships have been/are centered around music. Whenever I try to be great friends with someone who has entirely different music tastes than me, it pretty much backfires [I could prove my point by telling a pretty amusing tale of how I was almost friends with a heavy-metal lover...but then I went to a heavy-metal concert...whew...we're not so much friends any long... that was definitely the short version of the story...I've been told often that it takes me entirely too long to tell a story, something I'm working on :-)].

Allow me to introduce Dana Michelle Prestwood (although, I don't have a picture of her to post here), my very best friend from 8-10 grades. Dana and I enjoyed sharing every single class together in junior high, being on Odyssey of the Mind together, getting caught "red-handed" putting our handprints on the cieling of a classroom (literally, the teacher caught us with red paint on our hands), playing our orchestral instruments together at solo and ensemble competitions, going ice skating on her birthday, going to Disney World on my birthday, riding our bicyles ALL over Brevard County while getting the worst sunburns of our lives, getting our one and only detentions because we talked during announcements in 10th grade, taking tape dispensers and staplers from our favorite teacher EVER (of course we'd always return them), sneaking out of the patio during lunch time in order to hide behind the orchestra building to play SPIT and TONK (card games...cards were illegal), and most importantly, Dana and I shared a profound LOVE for DC TALK.

Dana and I once dressed up as 2/3rds of DC Talk for Halloween. Of course no one even knew who we were, but that didn't stop us (and another friend) from singing and rapping our way around the neighborhood collecting candy. We saw DC Talk together a total of 3 times and we even met the members of their band. Dana's dad would even play our DC Talk games with us: he'd be Michael, Dana would be Kevin, and I would be Toby (because if you all didn't know this, I have MAD rapping skills...and I'm not even kidding). During one sleepover, Dana and I stayed up all night drafting fan club letters to Toby, Mike, and Kevin. We had both of their videos and we taped them onto a mini tape recorder. We'd play the tape recorder as we walked to our classes and we pretty much memorized everything they said. During class time, we'd write each other notes and draw the DC Talk symbol on them. We'd recite lyrics to each other. Oh how I miss Dana Michelle Prestwood.

Well, yesterday I had to "babysit" the senior class for 2 hours while all the seniors came to pick up their senior class shirts. I say "babysit" because the only reason I was present was because an adult had to supervise in case any problems arose. I will say that I was needed on 2 separate occassions. However, for about 1 hour and 55 minutes, I was not needed and ended up having the time of my life!

Anna Olivia is a senior at Palm Bay High School and guess what?! I've known her since she was about 4 years old. We grew up going to the same church AND I was always her and Matthieu's fill in babysitter on choir nights in case their usual babysitter couldn't make it. I babysat for Anna and Matthieu a great many times and last year I was reunited with them at Palm Bay High School. Matthieu graduated last year and as I mentioned, Anna is a senior this year. She was in the cafeteria yesterday too to help distribute t-shirts. There were so many helpers that Anna ended up being the pen holder (she sat there and held the excess pens). I could hear Anna humming a familiar tune and so I started to hum along. Pretty soon we were singing, word for word, every single song from the newest Relient K song. OH THE FUN WE HAD sitting in the cafeteria and singing things like, "Ok, so who doesn't own a cell phone? Who brought back their permission slip because I know nobody wants to stay home when the rest of us can go and make a day of it. 'Cause theme parks are so much more fun when the sun's outside -- na na na na na -- I lost my phone to the lake beneath the batman ride..." and, "Nooooo, arts and crafts is all I need, I'll take caligraphy and then I'll make a fake degree!" We had so much fun. Soon we exhausted Relient K songs because I can't sing along to the songs off Anatomy of the Tongue and Cheek yet because I just got that CD a week ago. So, where do you turn when you run out of Relient K songs?

"Tick tock, tickety tock, tick tock, tickety tock, tick tock, tickety tock, tickety tickety tickety tock..." That's right, folks, one turns to DC TALK! So then we started rapping, "Down with the one that is known as the Son of the G to the O to the D neverdone...", "The other night I met a girl and she looked at me so nice, I asked her for the didgets and she didn't think twice, a couple of days later I called her up and asked her out...", "TAKE THIS MOB FOR A RIDE...HUH! Pullin' out my big, black book (black book) 'cause when I need a word defined, that's where I look, so I move to the L's quick fast in a hurry..." Pretty soon it was time to move the senior party from the cafeteria to the gym in order to take the huge panoramic picture, so this called for a trek through the halls. Anna and I kept on singing our DC Talk songs and whoa, I was transported right back in time and it felt like the glory days of Dana and I singing the groovy tunes.

Anyway, laying in bed, listening to Relient K this evening, made me think of Anna and Dana fondly. And now they'll live on in infamy on my little space of web. :-)