My Sense of Humor Has Returned

I vented my frustrations yesterday morning. By the time I walked out the door, I was back on track. I had a plan of attack. The day, and what I must accomplish was set out before me. I took one step forward and momentum took care of the rest.

Other than getting to school and attacking my books with a vengeance, the next best thing that I did was run out and buy that 'much needed accessory' for our group formation dance.

First - I found the above mentioned item on the Internet first thing in the morning. So when I called the store to put a hold on it, I had an actual name for it.

I made this 'emergency phone call' in the coffee room at school. I have made one other phone call from school (to the police, the morning of our fire in the playhouse). I always have my phone on vibrate - just in case there is an emergency at the school and My Youngest needs me (he hasn't). Other than that, my phone is idle. I never use it. It's in my in-case-of-emergency-only means of communication.

I walked into the coffee room and spotted a guy sitting at the table and wondered if I should make this call where no one could hear me. But I talked myself out of it - it's a gold lame sash for heavens sake. Nothing personal about that.

My end of the conversation sounded something like this:

"Do you have a gold lame shiny sash? .... Someone told me that the only one left in your store is right by the front till ... I really need it - can you put a hold on it for me?"

They replied that they could only hold it to the end of the day. My day was 'booked' from the moment I was on the phone until 9:00 last night so in my frantic excitement of knowing that this much needed item was available as we spoke, I ended the conversation with "I'll be right there."

I walked out of the coffee room thinking that I sounded like such a 'girly-girl' ... asking for this gold shiny sash ... needing it so badly ... it was so important that I was willing to drop everything and run out that very moment to buy it. I took half a second to wonder if I should explain this inane conversation to the guy sitting at the table. I never make calls like this - let alone at school ... with an audience. He didn't know me from Adam and I'm quite sure that he couldn't care less. Our paths would probably never cross again. I left it at that.

15 minutes later, I was back at school with the gold lame sash tossed carelessly in my trunk. I know where it is and I can grab it when I need it. "Back to the books!"

I thought my story ended there. Happy ending and all. But I don't think that it did.

A few hours later, I sat down at the last spot available for the "Thought Patterns ..." class. It was beside some guy, right at the front of a very small class room. I could reach out and touch the teacher. I was so uncomfortable with the front row seat, I thought of little else.

Until ... through the course of our group discussions (we were talking about eavesdropping on conversations), this guy sitting beside me mentioned overhearing conversations that people have on their cell phones in the coffee room. I took a quick intake of breath and thought "He's 'the guy' ... he heard the 'gold lame shiny sash' conversation that I can't believe that I had" ...

Me. An almost 50 year old. Sounding like some young thing all ga-ga about some shiny sash. "I need it! I'll be right there!"

I now feel the need to explain myself. Or will I just carry on like I do this every day and let him wonder about the spinny-graying-brunette that crossed his path yesterday?

As I retold this story ... I laughed. I laughed a lot. Laughter is like oxygen for my soul.

As my evening unfolded and I spoke about the dramas of the day, they came off sounding like that out of a sitcom. Rather inane. In the whole scheme of things, many of our day-to-day crisises are just that. Something we can laugh about when we remove ourselves from the situation.

I'm back. And so is my sense of humor.