Love and laughing go together like milk and cookies or rhythm and blues or Xs and Os. Love can’t last without laughter because, face it, the love of your life has some really irritating quirks (and maybe you do too).
LOVE AND LAUGHING ON A CRAZY RIDE —
Do you remember the cartoon show Mr. Magoo, a nearsighted man who took us on madcap and perilous excursions? Well, I married him.
He delighted me at various times with scenic views from a bike path, golf cart path, and one path through an outdoor café in Paris. “Look! All those people are waving at us. Who said the French aren’t friendly?”
You had to laugh.
HER FUNNY INTERNAL CLOCK — IS HE LAUGHING YET?
Is five minutes really five minutes? Maybe. Maybe not. Some people stubbornly cast time in stone. For others time is more fluid. And those opposites always seem to fall in love with each other.
How does your love’s internal clock work? How long is five minutes really?
Trust me. He’ll tell this story and laugh — someday.
Driving home on a Sunday —
I need to make a quick stop at the mall. There’s a dress I had them hold and I want your opinion. It will take five minutes.
Ok. But just that one dress? The ball game starts at four.
Don’t worry — we’ll be in and out — five minutes….
(In her defense, she didn’t know the sale had started.)
LOVE, LAUGHING AND MEN ASKING DIRECTIONS —
Who started the rumor about men refusing to ask directions? I know a man who not only asks for directions but asks the same directions from multiple people — he never trusts the first answer.
The man with no sense of direction panics when he’s not 100% certain that he is not lost — lost meaning he hasn’t been to this place before or something has changed, or “It just doesn’t look right.”
His wife is, of course, the opposite. She can find her way anywhere and doesn’t worry if she’s lost because, “I’ll get found again.” Can the man relax and trust her? No. She’s Cassandra of the highway — correct but not believed.
So he asks any random stranger who passes for directions — no matter if the stranger speaks English or is in the middle of the street and horns are blowing.
LOVE AND LAUGHING AND COMMUNICATIONS —
A whine comes from the bathroom: %*&#$! We’re out of aspirin.
No we’re not. I just bought a new bottle. Look in the medicine cabinet.
I am looking. It’s not there.
You don’t see a brown and yellow box? Really?
Oh. You said bottle. You should have said it was in a box.
LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND SHE HID MAYO AGAIN —
A shout from the kitchen: Where did you hide the mayo?
It’s in the door of the refrigerator where it always is.
No, it’s not there. There’s just mustard and ketchup.
Move the mustard.
Never mind. I found it.
And that’s how mayo became a private joke.
LOVE WITHOUT LAUGHTER IS TOO HARD
Do you remember young love — the intensity and the angst? The so-in-love high school couple rushing to be together between classes, staring into each other’s eyes with looks of anguish.
At sixteen, it felt romantic. But we’re not in high school anymore. We want love that doesn’t hurt that much. And we know love and laughter go together like milk and cookies or rhythm and blues or Xs and Os. And that laughing at our irritations or mistakes is a gift. The mistakes we don’t laugh at are the ones that haunt us.
For funny stories about some of the times I fell on my face – https://ruthibirch.com/funny-memories-funny-mistakes-from-2023/
November 1, 2024
