A Little Funny

As I write this blog, I realize that already, in my grand adventure into being an at-home family caregiver, there is humor. To me it's like this; food, water, shelter, air, love, humor. It's right up there with "air."

Have you ever been in a situation where you got the giggles when it was very inappropriate? I have. More than once. Here's one time I can remember clearly; I was working full-time as a teacher, raising a young child and pregnant with another. As if that wasn't enough, I was working on my master's degree. I went to class 4 nights a week after work for 5 hours. Luckily, I was young. But youth didn't shield me from exhaustion. I dragged myself to each class, a sack dinner, and a Pepsi in hand - if I'd had time to run home first.

One evening, the instructor introduced a guest speaker. She was a professor from Eastern Washington University. She'd driven three hours to speak that night. I sat at a table of my classmates. The speaker was talking about educational law. It was a subject that was of interest to me and I listened, taking notes. After our second short break, with only an hour left of the lecture, something happened. My classmate, Jenny sat next to me. The instructor said something (I don't remember what) and it was one of those things where there was a double meaning. The meaning she intended slipped past, while the unintended one made Jenny and I look at each other. At the same time, we were thinking the same thing. It was probably raunchy. I giggled a little. Jenny did too. We tried to stop it but each time we looked at each other, it got worse. Our stifled laughter burst. Did I mention that our table was directly in front of the professor?

The next 10 minutes were spent trying our best to be an adult. Trying to stop. Trying to not laugh. Of course, that just made it worse. Jenny passed me a note. "Bathroom?" it said. I looked up at her but she was already heading to the bathroom. I waited a few minutes and then followed her. As I went through the double doors, shutting them behind me, she was standing under the "restroom" sigh with a huge smile on her face. And that was it - we let it out - erupting into a ridiculously loud and over the top laughter. It took us several minutes before we could speak. And then a few minutes walking up and down the hall, before we returned to class.

As we rejoined our class, I tried to keep my eyes down. But when I did look up, I was getting glares from my classmates. I sat down and someone behind me said, "That was so rude!"

I had no excuse. Chalk it up to stress, exhaustion, too little sleep or too much caffeine. Whatever it was, I was not in control of it.

After class, I went directly up to the professor to apologize. She was kind and understanding. Or at least she pretended to be.

In care-giving, there are times that things are a little funny, or uproariously funny. It might seem out of balance, or insensitive, or even inappropriate. But humor gets us through. It's always been a sort of uncontrollable tool for me - a tool for coping with stress, or monotony or whatever. But what it really is is a way to relieve stress, a way to cope.

As I create this space, this blog, I don't want it to be a place that is full of information and devoid of real life. I don't want it to be all serious. Truth is - I can't be a care-giver without humor. So, I'm adding a feature called, "A Little Funny" where I'll post about things that strike me as funny. You can search for funny things (after the blog has been going a while) by clicking on the "A Little Funny" link.

Tune in tomorrow for my first "A Little Funny" post.

Ever laughed at a totally inappropriate time?

Do tell. ~Karen