We are not amused

Speaking of amusing yourself....When I was young[er] I used to amuse myself by creating companies and sending letters to my friends and family with company letterhead about the products they could buy from me or the philosophy I was trying to sell. The most fun was thinking of the mottoes for the companies/organizations. One motto I came up with was "IF OUR NAME ISN'T ON IT, WE DIDN'T MAKE IT". I don't know if anyone else thought it was funny, but I sure had a good time with it.

I think I get this trait from my Dad. He has a lot of fun at other people's expense. I don't mean that in a nasty way. It's just that my Dad will make jokes about things and most times, people don't get them. However it doesn't stop him from enjoying the joke anyway. I still remember the puzzled look on my husband's face when my Dad told him "I cut that board three times and it's STILL too short". My husband didn't know that my Dad was making a joke, but my Dad enjoyed it just as much. Probably more, because of the look on my husband's face.

Sometimes what strikes me funny is taking a concept and exaggerating it to the extreme. When I was growing up, my mother was famous for trying out vitamins - and making us try them too. "Take Zinc and you won't stink" was an example of her trying to get me to stay healthy on her behalf.

One night she asked me to bring her the vitamins. I didn't ask which one. I just brought them all. I think there must have been 15 containers of various sizes. I had them in my hands, up my sleeve, holding them in my shirt.... I remember laughing most of the night about her reaction when I brought them to the table. Again, I don't' know if she thought it was funny, but I got quite a bit of mileage out of that one.

I am not really good at practical jokes. At least ones that are immediate. For instance, I don't like the idea of toilet papering a house because of the mess it makes. However, I can derive quite a bit of fun out of thinking of a prank that might go something like this: I had a friend once who would never wear anything but new items. I don't think she had ever step foot in a thrift store. My husband's gramma used to come by our house regularly with stuff she found at the thrift shop. I remember taking a bunch of those items and sending them to her in a package just for the joy of thinking of her opening them up and trying to figure out what to do with them.

Another time, I phoned a friend who was planning to have a garage sale. I pretended to be an interested buyer and would she allow me to come at 7 am on the day of the sale to look over the stuff. She was not impressed. But as often happens when I am trying to play a joke, I started laughing so hard, she quickly figured out it was me. I still don't think she was impressed, but oh well, I enjoyed it!

Another form of amusement for me is to make a vague reference in conversation to something that has been talked about before. A friend's husband had quit his job after seven years. Someone asked why he'd quit. I said "it was because he'd worked for seven years and didn't get to marry the girl". This of course was a veiled reference to Jacob of the Bible who worked for Laban for seven years so that he could marry the love of his life, Rachel. He didn't get Rachel after seven years; he got her sister Leah. I remember the person looking at me like "HUHH????" and the other person saying "Just laugh, or she'll explain it".

Sometimes, I remember something that happened that struck me funny and for whatever reason, it strikes me funny again so I start laughing. Most people have learned not to ask. Generally, in the retelling, the joke gets lost and they wish they hadn't "gone there girlfriend".

Most people who know me well indulge me. They know that if I start laughing in the middle of a regular conversation, that I am not laughing at them. They also know that I will probably laugh every time I think of whatever it is that made me laugh in the first place. Sometimes, it is when I am talking to one of the kids and I use a "motherism" that is complete nonsense such as "Go to your room and write a thousand page essay" when what I had intended was more like "Go to your room and write a thousand word essay". Sometimes it is a random memory. Sometimes it is something that some one else says. Like the day my husband was going to lecture my son on Marilyn Manson and told him "She's just a sick musician". Uh, Hun? Marilyn Manson is a man. So much for looking like a contemporary parent!

I feel fortunate to work in an environment where I can find the funny things in life and other people don't look at me like I am completely whacked. In another job, when I was being orientated, the manager asked me if I had any questions. I asked if there was a uniform. She replied "no, we wear our own clothes." I burst out laughing because I immediately had a visual image of the employees going about wearing each other's clothes. She was not amused. Her look said "when you are finished being silly, we will carry on". I knew almost immediately I wouldn't be there for long.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine" - If that's the case, gimme some!