Hardy-Har!

Wow, has it really been two months since I posted? That's a long time. Next post I'll include some photos of our summer vacations, but for now, a post about the best medicine: laughter. A few weeks ago my sister in law asked me if I could remember the hardest I have ever laughed. So thank you, Samantha, for the inspiration for this post. (This story isn’t the hardest I’ve laughed in my life, but it takes first place for this week for sure…) Here it goes:

We walked into the gym hand-in-hand. I recognized a few people from the spring competitive league, but there were mostly new faces. We sat down and the recreational sports director got started. The meeting was like a high school test review -- drab, really, because the director had given the same schpeel on sportsmanship to 17 other groups of college kids already today.

Despite his monotone voice, I still felt hyped about the upcoming tennis season. A few minutes later we were trudging through a PowerPoint on dress codes and scheduling. My boredom level and tiredness kicked in. When it came time for questions, we were sitting there quietly awaiting our release so Brad could get started on his chemistry homework. Several legitimate questions were answered.
And then… a hand on the other side of the room went up. “Are we going to be playing against each other?” (Since you usually stand on one side of the net and hit the ball to an empty court...)

The girl’s question must not have struck the director the way it did me because he kept a straight face as he answered “Yes.”

I inhaled deeply, trying to prevent a loud outburst of laughter. Knowing my limits, I counted to Three Mississippi before turning to Brad to mouth “who else would we play?...” I should have abstained a second or two longer because when I saw the line on his face grow from one inch to five in a couple of seconds, it was over.

We stared at each other with ridiculous smiles for a millisecond as we tried to be stronger than our bodies. A few audible peeps of laughter (and a couple of tears) escaped my body, but I was fighting to keep it internal. Looking at me wasn’t helping so Brad hunched completely over and covered his face as his whole body shook in silent laughter. No longer blocked by his shoulders, there was nowhere to hide the wetness dripping down my face.

“I have to go,” I whispered.

I speed-walked out of the gym and busted into loud, silly laughter in the hallway. We continued to laugh during the entire walk home and I am smiling right now as I type this. Looking back maybe she was wondering if we were going to play another school...but that's not how it came out. We laughed our heads off for a long time afterward. The whole situation just tickled my funny bone.

So there you have it!