Friday, March 30, 2012

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHAT MADE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD?

We are trying something new: a question of the week we will all answer....or those of us who want to will.

The question this week is:

WHAT MADE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD?

I was on a lengthy stopover at the Denver Airport after a fairly sleepless trip -- at that stage of tiredness and crankiness when almost everything was irritating me, from getting a few drops of hot water in the restroom sinks (and I had to flap my hands to get THAT -- over and over to get enough to really wash my hands) to people's loud voices and rudeness. The WIFI worked perfectly though, and I read the latest in a discussion among me, my siblings and most of our cousins about the location of a planned family reunion. Things were deteriorating there, too, and I was too tired to deal with it. So I went to get something to eat.

I vaguely tuned into the conversation at the next table: three teenage boys complaining about something -- but I didn't REALLY start listening until the father said:

"It was my bad. Mom had this romantic idea of all of us being together in the snow....."

I looked over: father, 3 boys between the ages of about 11 and 16, and a man who never said a word.

"Why couldn't we have gone to the beach?" one boy said.

"We always go to the beach. You would have liked the mountains better if you'd gone ski-ing."

"If I went ski-ing I'd probably hurt myself," said the first boy.

The argument went on and on, with the father being resolutely cheerful even in the face of:

"It sucked."

"I have no interest in sitting on boat."

"It's less boring than_________."

"The likelihood of any of us killing a shark is zero. Sharks move at...."

The only thing they all agreed on, supported by their father, was NO VEGETABLES. When their meal came, and there was lettuce on the hamburgers, they were sent back, very pleasantly and politely -- the father talked. Then, one of the kids commented on the vegetables in the father's drink.

"I know what you mean," the father said diplomatically, "but somehow I can never think of olives as a vegetable."

Then they went back to arguing.

Maybe this won't make anyone else laugh -- but *I* laughed and it really cheered me up, too. ALL families (not just mine) argue about vacation locations and the point is to go. They had their father (such a nice guy! I don't know how parents have the patience!) and, luckily, we have people in our family, too, who say they're going because they want to see relatives and get to know them better; WHERE we do it is secondary ....and thanks to over-hearing this conversation, I was able to be one of them.

I didn't mean to make this a "what I learned" kind of thing, and if we can answer this question twice, next time I'll just say something funny and leave it at that!

2 comments:

Ruth said...

Thanks for the post. Olives are definitely not a vegetable. They are a delectable, along with pistachio sorbet and dark chocolate.

Amber Keyser said...

The Beanie Babies version of the Hunger Games cracked me up!