Mild Amusement

I've said it before , but I very willingly laugh at myself and situations that could negatively impact me, largely because I'm too much of a smart ass. Quite often, I see the humor of the situation even when I am the "victim" in the scenario. I also tend to think that there's value in adding to the general amusement in the world, so I've always considered laughing at myself to be fair game. All in all, it makes for all sorts of interesting exchanges. The latest bout of this happened to be when I was in the hospital a few months back. First of all, I had to check in on a weekday, so I was by myself. The people who I could trust to bring me to the hospital were all working that day, so I strolled in by myself. That was fine, but the first nurse I saw was a bit surprised by this fact. In her words, she thought I "was a teenager, so [she] was about to ask where my parents were." Awesome. I was all of five minutes in to my excursion, and already things ...

A while back, a bunch of us went out for a birthday dinner as a family. Seeing as how it was for a birthday, we went to one of the nicer steak houses near by. I don't generally go to steak houses very often, and I definitely hadn't been to this one before. I didn't quite know what to expect, frankly. I shouldn't have worried. By the end of the meal, we all had a good meal and a surprising amount of laughter. First of all, we all decided on getting a pitcher of sangria. I think it was one of the few things we could all agree on, and it was pretty darn delicious. Of course, this was the beginning of the fun. One of my sister-in-law's brothers (side note: I'm always curious if there's a more succinct way of describing this relation) had had to miss the dinner, so my sister-in-law decided to make sure he knew exactly what he was missing. I think the word "awesome" and the phrase "what you're missing out on" were thrown around in some te...

A while back, I joined up with a bunch of friends for some beers on a weekend afternoon. They picked some place I'd never been to before, but I didn't care all that much. I mean, the general plan was "drink some beer," so it's not like I was going to be too exacting about the venue. I was running a little late, but by the time I got there, the rest of the crew was executing beautifully on the general plan. However, they had thrown a wrinkle in to the plan by also starting up a game of shuffleboard. It's rare that I see a shuffleboard table, so every time I do, I'm always amused by the novelty of the thing. However, seeing as how I was late, I got my hands on a mug of beer, sat back, and watched. Combining the commentary from the peanut gallery with the beers that had been consumed, this was a pretty amusing spectacle to watch. As it turned out, I wasn't going to be a spectator for long. At one point, one of the other guys bowed out, so I stepped up...

A few months back, I decided to get some new cologne. I actually don't wear much of the stuff, but since my walk is a little ghetto , I have to balance things out with a touch of class. Just a touch, mind you. I was in the car talking to a friend about how much it can cost, and she remarked that she didn't even remember that I wore cologne. In fact, I had to let her sniff my wrist in order to convince her that I did in fact use cologne. Even then, the verdict was, "it's there, but it's faint." In other words, things were more or less how they should have been. However, I was reminded today that the process of acquiring that very same cologne was a bit of an adventure. This particular adventure was in one of the fancier stores in the mall. It started off fairly innocently, I went to the floor where most of the men's apparel was housed and I looked around. Not seeing any sort of signs, I started to walk around in hopes of either stumbling in to the right s...

Lewis Black has this really funny bit about how he knows what causes aneurysms ( starting around 1:35 ). Now, for this to make sense (or be funny), you have to realize that modern medicine doesn't claim to know what causes an aneurysm. However, this guy swears he knows what causes them: those facepalm-worthy things you hear in passing. The words rattle around in your head, causing you all sorts of consternation, until suddenly, you have a sudden bursting of your blood vessels. Remember that as you read the rest of this. Now, I am a very curious person. If I'm waiting in line to board a plane, I'm going to look at the controls to the little extending deck. If there are construction workers standing around discussing something, I try to guess what they're working on, and what their plan of attack will be. If someone says they know how to do something I don't, I start asking questions. You get the idea. Sure, this sort of thing can happen just about any time, any...

A while back, I went out to grab drinks and some dinner with a few friends. It wasn't a particularly special occasion, but more than a few people had agreed to meet up. Unsurprisingly, several people were late. So, those of us who had shown up earlier than the rest ordered drinks from the bar. We had alcohol and good company to keep us entertained, though, so it was hardly a hardship. When the rest of the party showed up shortly thereafter, we made our way to our table with unfinished drinks in hand. That's when the fun began. When we sat down, I went to put down my drink. By this point, there was a bit of condensation on the glass, so I looked around for a coaster or napkin on which to set my glass. Noticing that I wasn't the only one to do this, the waitress brought over some napkins. These would serve as coasters, and all would be right in the world. However, she didn't bring enough. The pile was quickly distributed, but I still did not have a coaster-like object...

I have a quirky sense of humor, so I will usually give people a wide berth when it comes to oddball comments. This sometimes leads to some questionable conversations . Most of the time, it's fine. I play along, we all share some laughs, and we call it good. Sometimes, though, these types of conversations blindside me with shenanigans that can get me in trouble. The ones at work are the worst, since I have to mind my p's and q's then. Of course, knowing my luck, I've been seeing a sharp increase in the latter kind lately. And the worst part of it all is that it's largely due to a single person. She's out to get me, I tell you. It's not even like I spend every day chatting this person up, so this is all coming from a relatively small sample size. I repeat, I think she's out to get me. Now, I know you're probably thinking that I'm exaggerating. Or maybe you suspect that I am partially to blame for this. Somehow, I should be doing more, or sayin...