on humor

laughter is so important to me, even more so now. and laughs are harder to come by these days, so the ones that escape my lips are pretty precious.  i can count the ones that stick in my mind on my fingers this past week. 

• reading thru the OFFICIAL Walgreen's Personal Prescription Information pamphlet on Zoloft.  & then i got to the Possible Side Effects part.  anxiety, constipation, decreased sexual desire or ability, diarrhea, dizziness, drowsiness, dry mouth, increased sweating, loss of appetite, nausea, nervousness, stomach upset, tiredness, touble sleeping, vomiting, or weight loss. it was one of those crossroads where you ask yourself, should i laugh or should i cry? & i chose to laugh.  made me think of this stand up routine by jeff foxworthy i heard once. he jokes about the side effects sometimes being worse than what your actually trying to fix. (i tried to youtube it, but couldn't find it). i was further amused with the next sentence. "if they continue OR ARE BOTHERSOME, check with your doctor."  what those little things? bothersome?? nooo....  and yah, just for the record, 8-days into this journey with this sweet little pill, i totally have all of the above. 
• a silly comic from the sunday edition of the Daytona Beach News-Journal struck my funny bone. an old lady pointing a gun at her husband who is dressed super nerdy.  & she is saying: "Remember when we were young & you pointed to that old man at the mall & said to me, "If I ever try to leave the house dressed like that, shoot me"?" 

• and then i laughed further when i read this comic guys blog. (http://www.bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/)  the following is copied & pasted from his blog.

Here's a bit of oddness: The day after this cartoon appeared in papers, I received the following email. 

"I dont like how you put guns in your comics, espically on Valentines Day
- (man's name) for my daughter who is 11"

That was the whole thing. I usually answer all of the mail I get, positive or negative, but this one stumped me. I have no idea what to say to this man and his daughter. I want to ask so many questions.

•How about knives, can I show a person chopping onions with a knife?
•Are sticks okay?
•Is there a day other than Valentine's Day when a cartoon gun would be less offensive?
•Have you ever heard of words like "humor," "satire," "hyperbole," "unrealistic desires to control a world which is essentially a festival of random chaos heading downhill without brakes," "choose your battles"?  (me LOL!!!!)

My sincere apologies to anyone who finds ink strokes in the shape of a gun in a cartoon offensive. Next time, I'll use a potato.

"If I ever try to leave the house dressed like that, point a harmless tuber at me."

•  heather armstrongs writing at http://www.dooce.com/
• listening to stand-up comedians on xm radio with zane on our way to pick up outback steakhouse take-out. 
• a text message the next day repeating a one-liner we'd laughed about.
• weeds, season five, especially disc 1.
• a friend & i talking by my car in the parking lot at work. i put my work-out clothes in my trunk.  she said: "hey have you ever been in the trunk with the trunk closed before?" & then she proceeds to jump in the trunk and tells me i should try it.  "come on, face your fears." (she is from seattle, therefore she is weird like me. we get each other that way) my heart is pounding. i tell her i can't do that. she argues. "what if you were kidnapped, come on, you need to know what to do."  (she is this super independent, single mother of two surivor-type) i'm still hesistating. this just seems crazy. and i'm terrified & totally claustrophobic.  i finally give in. the trunk closes. it's pitch black, my heart is absolutely racing, i am freaking out,  i scream.  she said, "breathe, just pull the latch from the inside, you can do this." the trunk pops and i'm free. i jump out & i can't stop giggling. i laugh until my stomach is aching. it was a total Notebook moment where noah makes allie lay in the middle of the street & they almost get ran over by a car. minus the romance part of course. maybe i can recreate the moment with zane. ha
• a couple hours later. back at work. i find out john, one of the regular members at the gym was watching the whole trunk episode thru the free-weights room windows.  i think about what that must have looked like to him.  what kind of person crawls in trunks except for complete & total lunatics. this makes me burst out with laughter all over. 
•  an email titled: "Shallow Thoughts for Today" some shallow thoughts that made me lol: (literally).

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
3. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day. (the fact that i read this at work while i was definitely not supposed to be checking my email added to the comedic factor)
4. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
5. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

it might be harder now, and my illness and the medicine that is helping me may be taking away a lot of other things right now, but they cannot take away my ability to laugh, and for that i am thankful.