laughing

"It's a fool's life, a rogue's life, and a good life if you keep laughing all the way to the grave." ~Ed Abbey

Things that make me laugh just thinking about them:

1) When Jed was barely 4, he (as always) ran around the house naked. On this particular evening he kept running from the kitchen to the heater and back. Finally I asked him, "What are you doing?" to which he replied "Warming up my little guys." "What!" I said, thinking that euphemism was not age appropriate. "My pirates," he explained, holding up two small plastic men. Oooohhhhh.

2) When Ali was 3 or 4 she suddenly got a conspiratorial look on her face at the dinner table. Leaning towards her father and me she said, "I learned the difference in boys and girls today." "Oh?" her dad replied. "Yes," she nodded, quite seriously, "Boys have beards and girls have chins."

3) My mother was always a bit slow on the uptake. When I was in high school, riding with her in the car I asked "Have you ever noticed that the right turn signal makes a different noise than the left turn signal?" "Really?" she asked, and tried it out, to confirm my observation. "I wonder why that is?" Thinking for a moment I answered "I bet it so blind people can tell if their turn signals are working." "I bet that's it!" replied mom. As I said, a bit slow on the uptake.....

4) One year I was teaching a rather challenging group of seniors, most of whom wanted to graduate but had developed some rather non-academic behaviors that often got in the way. I was often frustrated about the number of students who skipped class, thus reducing the chance of graduation even farther. After a long day I stopped at the grocery store, came around a corner and was face to face with a student - who had not been in class that very afternoon! "Ms. Hadaway!" he stammered. "I'm glad I found you," I said in a stern voice, "I'm here to see your manager about why you can come to work but not to school." "You can't do that!" his voice skipped an octave. "It's important to me you come to class, I've told you all that." "Hadaway, I promise, if you just don't say anything I won't miss another one of your classes, really." I took him up on his deal, shook his hand and headed out with my groceries. Not only was he in class every day after that, but word quickly spread throughout the class that if you skipped Hadaway's class, she would track you down at your place of employment and make you suffer. It all worked out to my benefit, and what made me laugh the hardest was that I had no idea where this young man worked, and no intention of tracking him down. But it worked.

5) Calvin and Hobbes. Whatever there is to know about life, the universe and everything can be found in Calvin and Hobbes. Thinking of various cartoons, such as Calvin wanting to be a hunter-gatherer, or throwing snowballs at Suzy....always good for a laugh.

6) The movie Strange Brew with Bob and Doug Mackenzie. I know it's rather stupid, but it's hilarious. Especially now that I understand the whole Hamlet allusions that I didn't get when I was younger. Every so often I jump on the bed and start to roll around saying "Steam roller! Steam roller!" and laugh hysterically. My husband just shakes his head, I guess he's just not able to appreciate the finer points of beer/hockey/stupidity humor. I'm literally laughing out loud right now....