8th Day of Valentine

"Funny Hats" August, 2001, Staff Meeting

HUMOR

I've already spoken of your outgoingness. And the line between the two of them is pretty fuzzy. It's hard to have one & not the other.



Did you know that I often didn't like to watch comedians? It took a LOT to make me laugh. Sit coms were boring. And the loud ones at parties, who usually got the chuckles? I thought they were just plain corny. I thought I was funny & maybe my sister, but not very many people tickled my funny bone.



Within are first few times of 'hanging out', you had made me laugh more than anyone I knew. Sometimes it was laughing at you, sometimes with you, & sometimes from you.



I probably haven't given you enough credit in this department, as I don't want to let down my humor guard... but let's just say, if humor is good medicine, I'd have a lot more health problems if you weren't around.
Sometimes, when you're at work, I'll laugh, thinking of something funny you did or said.



And I'll never get this out of my head: (what is now famously referred to as THE PAPER BLOCK)



It was August of 2001, we had been really good friends for several months, spending most of our time together. You were making your feelings more & more clear to me, but I was practicing restraint & being reserved about things.

You had shared with a girl we taught with, how you're never able to get close to me...that it seemed I always sat on the other side of the room, or positioned myself so that you left me alone.



In my apartment, I had -well - apartment furniture. Pier 1 would've been proud of the set up, as I used a single papasan chair in the corner & a double in lieu of a couch.

You told Jaime, "She always goes to that single chair first...I never even have a chance to sit beside her..."
She gave you the advice of, "next time you're with her, YOU go to that single chair first. She'll have no choice but to sit in the double. Then, in time, get up & sit in the double WITH her."



So, the night that could've been the turning point for us, I cooked us a would-be romantic dinner of chicken parmasean. You had your plan in place & headed straight for the single papasan. Just as if it were going smoothly, I headed to the double papasan. As I approached it, you were in such a hurry to beat me to the single, that you landed with too much velocity.

I still replay it in my mind... you hit the chair & tried to land as if all was well. But the law of motion didn't think so. Your arms windmilled as you s l o w l y went backwards...further...and further....and it seemed like five minutes had passed before you grasped the intersection of wall behind you like Spiderman. And then somehow tried to figure out how to pull yourself out of the situation.



We both had a good laugh. I didn't laugh as much as I felt like laughing, afterall, I knew you had a reputation to protect some pride.



But you still thought your plan would work. I could tell you were watching my every move. You had your next move calculated.

I did go to the double papasan, but your plan was FOILED when I spread out all my insurance paperwork around me which I had to turn it in the next day.



You shared this all with me a few weeks later, when we were "more than friends."



This funny scenario is one of the many. We're probably not as funny to other people as we are to each other. It's like our own language. We know where the line is with each other (I think it's the same line) & one of us whinces when the other tries a joke out on someone else & it goes awry. (which makes it that much funnier to the other person)



We've been through some situations in our life together that weren't fun. We still go through them. But I'm so thankful that I have someone to love & laugh with.



Thank you honey, for the gift of humor.

That's what she said.