My friend, Shaneequa, and I have a saying, "be funny". It's not a request so much as a demand. BE FUNNY. We save this demand for road trips usually. By hour three one of us is ready for the other to be hysterically funny so we can laugh so hard we cannot see. No one ever said, "Don't Laugh and Drive".
Somehow we manage. We have laughed at everything and at nothing. There is nothing like laughing with your friend. We laugh at everything appropriate and inappropriate. We laugh at things we said or did once upon a time. "remember when...." and we are already in full guffaw.
When Shaneequa's father died very unexpectedly I went with her to a mall to pick out a dress for her mom to wear to the funeral. Her mom was too upset to shop and Shaneequa needed to get away from the ordeal for a while. Her dad was a healthy man whose heart gave out. He was gone in minutes. It was shocking and awful and surreal. As we walked through the mall she made the comment that her dad had always gone there to walk for his health. I paused, I didn't want to say it....but I did. "Well, that obviously didn't work". We were quiet for a nano second, then we laughed. It was inappropriate but brought that moment of lightness when the weight was so heavy.
One day Shaneequa and I were driving through Dripping Springs and we saw a business sign we have seen dozens of times, "Twin Liquors". We lost it. Twin Lickers, we both knew at the same time. I don't think we said anything for the rest of the drive. One Twin Lickers sent us on a peal of laughter all the way to our destination.
There is something so satisfying about being unable to breathe because you are laughing so hard. It's a gift. The ability to laugh not to make someone laugh. The ability to let it all go and howl because of something incredibly silly.
One afternoon Shaneequa and I had a heart to heart talk about God and being spiritual. We talked about getting older and life having more meaning and death being a bit more real at this stage of life. We were patting ourselves on the back for being such good people in general. Next thing we knew we were being the snarkiest two women on earth. I sang a phrase from an old hymn, "and He walks with me and He talks with me....", (or, "Andy walks with me Andy talks wtih me"). Shaneequa and I lost it. We laughed forever. She reminded me that hymn had been sung at her father's funeral. It would be played at her mother's funeral too. NO, by the time she lost her mom we both knew we would not survive the funeral, sing that hymn and not be admitted to a hospital for the less than normal. Even now we just hum a few bars and hilarity erupts.
My oldest friend, (not that she is old, I have known her the longest), Kallie, and I have phrases from childhood that still make us roll with laughter. They aren't funny unless you were there. "Never in a million french fries" and "let's 'vide 'em", make us giggle to this day. Left over childhood hilarity.
I have known people that never seem to laugh. It's like they have no sense of humor or they simply do not know how to laugh, or snicker, or giggle or even titter. I feel bad for them. I cannot imagine not laughing as much as possible.
I love a good unexpected one liner. They are really little gifts of momentary lightness. I was talking to a friend one day about names. I always hated mine. Something about having the same first name as approximately one third of your generation makes you feel invisible. I began my whine about being named Linda...with a boring middle name too...he didn't miss a beat. "Never a borrower nor a Linda be". I laugh every time I think about that.
Do you remember the first time you thought something was funny? Grown up funny not knock, knock funny? I do. I remember where I was, who said it and how clever I thought it was AND how clever I thought I was because I thought the joke was funny.
What does a whore do on her vacation? Spends her fuckin' money.
I KNOW!
LBB
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