The Hilarity of Daily Life

At first glance, my life doesn't seem all that exciting.  I go to work for eight hours a day.  On Tuesday and Wednesday nights I go to class and spend the other nights trying to get homework done.  I babysit occasionally.  I go to the singles ward home evening activities on Mondays.  I go to church and eat dinner with my family on Sundays.  I chat with people on Facebook far into the night when I should be in my bed sleeping.  I read books and watch movies and TV shows.  Yeah...it doesn't seem too exciting now, does it?

But one thing I've learned how to do over all these years of dealing with boring schedules and daily routines is to see the humor in everyday life.  The reason comedians like Brian Regan are so funny is because they talk about ordinary everyday things that everyone can relate to, just in a funnier way than most of us can manage.  (For example, Brian Regan once did a whole skit on ironing boards.  I always thought ironing boards were pretty unremarkable items until I heard Brian Regan say, "Every ironing board I've ever had sounds like a witch being boiled in oil."  Now every time I unfold the legs of an ironing board and hear the shriek of metal scratching metal, I bust up laughing.  It's so true!)

My life may not seem too exciting but it can be pretty darn funny sometimes.  Here are a few instances in which the seemingly mundane things of life became extremely amusing.

At a ward Linger Longer, a bunch of us sat around a table and talked about facial hair.  After about thirty minutes of discussing whether or not guys can really pull it off, we came to the conclusion that some guys can and some guys can't.  We have yet to figure out what the distinguishing feature is that allows someone to pull off facial hair.

I was babysitting last night.  Usually babysitting jobs are pretty uneventful but last night was different.  Sydney was already in bed.  So I set up my laptop and Sophie and I Skyped with my old roommate Heidi for an hour.  After we finished, I put Sophie in the jumper and proceeded to unplug my computer.  I had plugged it in behind the couch.  I pulled the couch out a little bit but apparently I didn't pull it out far enough.  I managed to get my arm behind the couch and unplug the cord but, to my dismay, I fell, landed on the couch, and pinned my arm behind the couch just above the elbow.  I tried and tried to move the couch with my other arm to no avail.  The numbness in my arm obviously extended to my brain as I thought about that guy whose arm got pinned under a rock while hiking alone in the mountains and, after a couple days, he decided to cut off his own arm to free himself.  Though my situation was not that dire, I didn't really want to be pinned to the wall when my sister and brother-in-law got home.  Crying out in pain and frustration, I finally managed to pull my bony elbow out from behind the couch.  I now have a lovely bruise all around my elbow as a testament of my clumsiness.  That was not a fun experience while it was happening but, in retrospect, it's kind of hilarious.

If there was a quote wall at work, these are the things I would put on there:

•  Melodie (during a staff meeting): "Men sniffing their snot..."
• Jeff (walking to my desk to retrieve a candy bar from the candy jar): "I need chocolate!  Gimme chocolate!"
• (So there's an overhang just outside our door at work.  One of these overhangs actually fell down once.  David is really concerned about ours falling randomly while someone is standing under it.)  Jeff: "Hey David, why don't you go take a call outside.  And make sure you stand below that overhang.  That's the real secret to managing an overstretched payroll."
• (There are a few extra offices in the back.  On the wall of one of the offices, there are a bunch of little red dots and red streaks.  Even though we're pretty sure it's just furniture polish, we make jokes about people being shot in there and their blood splattering on the wall.  We call it the Zombie Room whenever Jeff's kids come into the office.)  When we haven't seen someone for a while, we say, "They must have taken a trip back to the Zombie Room."
• Jeff (to Melodie): "You're getting way too logical.  If I wanted that kind of logic, I'd stay home and listen to my wife!"
• Melodie: "Can you just shoot me?" Jeff: "Only if you shoot me first, and with my last dying breath I'll shoot you."  Celia: "Rough day, huh?" 

Make sure you take the time to laugh today.  You'll be surprised at how funny life really is.