Funnies recommended by Marisa:
Hee Haw Laffs
on VHS from PulseTV (look for the comedy tapes)
Look for books by Lewis Grizzard and Dave Barry at
For those who like their humor a little more raw (not for children - I'd call it PG-13):
It Could Be The Law, I Don't Know
![It's A Sorry World [HDCD]](http://photo.towerrecords.com/coverart/muze/music/290/298742.jpg)
Coming soon: the Tim Wilson CD with "The Jeff Gordon Song"! Keep checking with
Is Sterling your favorite driver too? Look at all the merchandise you can get from FansEdge.com
now! Isn't it great being a fan of the points leader?!!! What a year!!!
They have merchandise for other drivers, too!
August 21, 2002
Absence makes the heart grow fonder...I think
By the time you read this, I'll probably be enjoying the company of my dearly beloved once again. He's been out of town for a night or two, and next week, he'll make another trip. Of course, since he's a "semi-professional" musician, he's not home a whole lot anyway, but this is different. I forget how much I depend on him just being here occasionally.
Isn't that usually the way it is? There's an old familiar saying, "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." I'm glad to get a gentle reminder that I should appreciate the guy, instead of a sudden permanent separation.
Maybe absence DOES make the heart grow fonder. The day the hubby left town, work was horrible. He called just before catching the plane, and after I moaned about work, he said, "Tell the kids I love them." I burst into tears right there on the phone, in front of God and everybody. He said, "Don't worry about me flying, I'll be fine." I lied and told him I wasn't worried about that. HE was the one getting on the plane - he didn't need ME to scare him.
Ironically, in the next room, at that very moment, sat a patient whose resemblance to my honey wasn't just in my mind. Three co-workers mentioned it too. On a morning when nothing was going my way, this patient was quite a pleasant distraction!
I know, I know, as a Christian, I'm not supposed to show even a hint of sexual immorality. And I'm not even considering engaging in anything like that. I'm just a born flirt, and I like men in general. Maybe that comes from having a close relationship with my grandfather, or from growing up with two brothers, or from being raised by a baseball coach. That was like having eighteen older brothers who reported my every move to Daddy. I don't know where it comes from. I do try not to give people the wrong impression. My husband knows this, and he seems to enjoy the fact that I can charm all his bandmates, buddies from school, and co-workers. Honestly, I don't know how I do it. I'm no beauty queen. I quit trying to understand this gift a long time ago.
Oh, that morning at work, it was quite the emotional roller-coaster. One minute I was forcing myself not to pounce on a griping (spoiled) physician with my bare hands; the next, I was crying on the phone like a heartsick teenager.
When I found my supervisor trying to finish the study on my favorite patient that morning, I called her aside and said, "I can handle this. After all, this patient is the one bright spot in my day and nobody's going to take that away from me!" Fortunately, she knows me well - she saw my sense of humor peeking out of my funk.
Later in the day I went to retrieve another patient from the ER. Nobody had warned me that he looked like Sterling Marlin. If you don't know who he is, YOU HAVEN'T BEEN READING MY ARCHIVES! If you know me...well...you've heard of Sterling. He is, at the time of this writing (and hopefully for many months to come) the Winston Cup Points Leader. He has been my favorite NASCAR driver for a long time. Not forever. Darrell Waltrip held that position until sometime four years or so ago, when I realized that his career was ending and I needed to shift my support to someone else. Then I became the number one fan of the man from Tennessee. Well, maybe not number ONE. He IS married.
But back to the ER.
I walk in, see this patient, and I'm nearly struck dumb. This, of course, is a major thing for me because I can always find something to say. I was lucky. The patient was a talker so I didn't have to say much. He made it easy.
You know when I realized how much my husband really loved me? Last fall when he took me to Talladega to see Sterling race. He had never been a racing fan, but after he watched me follow Sterling's career through some really dark times and finally into the happier days he's been enjoying the last two years, he missed two gigs to take me to Talladega to watch this man drive around and around in circles. Now, he even watches the races even when I'm not with him, and he almost understands the NASCAR points system - well, as much as anyone CAN understand that.
Why is it that when you're in a blue mood, all the songs on the radio feed into your pity party? That night, we went to the store and I nearly bawled again, because I heard that song by Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson, that one that says, "Tonight, we will both discover how friends turn into lovers." That's NOT one of our songs. For us, romantic music is Pink Floyd. Van Halen and Cheap Trick fit that category too. Hey, we named our son after a rock star. We weren't into light rock favorites suitable for the office. I do, however, know all the words in the Air Supply catalog. They had great harmonies.
I just couldn't tune that song out. I hadn't been that overcome by song lyrics since I heard "Every Day" by Buddy Holly in a drugstore while I was on a business trip nine months after we got married.
I miss him. I'll be glad when he's home safely.
This Friday is our 13th anniversary. I believe I speak for both of us when I say that sometimes it feels like it's been a lot longer. Other times I reflect on our past and say, "Where has the time gone?" I still think of myself as being in my late 20's - not my mid-30's. We've been together so long that we can speak of our past in blocks of YEARS. Like "Oh, that was back when we lived in Kentucky," or "Well, that must've been in the grad school days." Now that baby, born while I was putting my husband through grad school, is in second grade.
We've been through at least six major job changes. Two included moving. He and I both had major surgery and several hospitalizations. We had two children 30 months apart. (Later, one of his friends said, "Wow! I don't think I've ever seen you when you weren't pregnant!") The younger child was born with a birth defect that's required three surgeries in seven years. We've endured my parents' divorce and the deaths of three of our four grandmothers. My other grandmother had a nervous breakdown and the rest of us nearly followed. There was my father-in-law's stroke and declining health. My mom's had breast cancer, married again, divorced again, been robbed at gunpoint, been through the injury and death of her second husband, and hit by a car. The woman is nothing short of a miracle.
Wait a minute - I nearly forgot this is the LAUGHTER page. Well, I have to laugh. It's the only way I stay sane. We've been through a lot in thirteen years. There were other trials, way too many to mention. But there have been blessings too - oh, many of them. Like the trip to Talladega, and the hilarious things the kids say. We joke all the time, about everything. It's a survival skill.
And that brings me to where I'll end this missive. Our son brought home a paper about a story he'd read in class. He told how the main character "oll most died. But he was tuff and he srevived. He was hurt really bad, but he srevived."
I took it to work to remind me that Mommy is tuff, and she'll srevive.
Where do you want to go?
Laughter archive
2001
August 28 - the first one - be gentle with me, I was just starting out!
Sept. 19 - The ""Hit Me For a Sale'' installment - Yes, I admit I was a little rough on the salespeople! Read ONLY if you are tired of having to buy stuff at parties, etc. !
Sept. 26 - Is it really in his kiss? Judge for yourself.
Oct. 7 - Is Visa really everywhere you want to be? Or where you don't want to be?
Nov. 17 - I'm much too young to be this darn old!
2002
Jan. 31 - Homesporting
Feb. 28 - Kids say the...well, you know the kind of things they say!
Apr. 3 - Your car says what you wish your mouth did!
July 3 - Happy Independence Day!