's motd Friday March 19, 2010

[Guest guest]

MY SIDES HURT!

Friday, 19 March 2010

A day didn't go by in our house in New Orleans that I didn't laugh...until my sides hurt! My mother was very funny and my dad had a great sense of humor, too. Lenny, though...was not funny. (He was always a very serious child.)

There was a married couple who worked for us, Hattie and Victor. And they were funny too. I had a dog named Micky and a parakeet named Miss Bing. The two of them were so funny together. They were always doing things that made me laugh. I also had a couple of nuns in elementary school who both had a great sense of humor.Next door to our house, there was an apartment house and many of the strippers who worked on Bourbon Street lived there. They were all so hysterical. (I guess you had to have a good sense of humor to be a stripper, huh?) So, as you can see, I was raised around a very colorful cast of characters in the French Quarter. And all of them made me laugh a lot, too!

My laughs would begin as a little chuckle that grew into a cackle, then tears would begin forming in my eyes and as I kept laughing, my sides would begin to hurt! Sometimes one of my laughs would last five whole minutes. But after I quieted down, later, I'd think about what tickled my funny bone so much and I'd start laughing all over again!I just love to make people laugh. I do it in airports, at convention centers...everywhere I go! I think one of the reasons God created people on this earth was so that I could make them laugh. And I still love to laugh as often as I can, too!Oh, I laugh out loud at the movies. And sometimes, when I get to the funny part of a book I'm reading, I start laughing hysterically. You know, there are many things in life that you can fake but a good, real laugh is not one of them.

Now, the person I laugh at most...is me. That's right. I just like to do the silliest and funniest things. I must have been a clown in my last life. And look, here I am in this life, still a clown, just without the big red nose and floppy shoes! I hope you can laugh at yourself sometimes, too.So when's the last time you had a real good belly laugh? What? You mean you haven't had a good solid laugh in a long time? Hey, what is wrong with you!? Are you taking life too seriously? You know, worrying and stressing out about everything? Now that's the way to really lose your sense of humor in a hurry. And I'm telling you, having a good sense of humor is very important.

You've got to find something to laugh about and I mean find it today. Did you know that laughter is a form of exercise for the whole body? It tightens your facial muscles and your neck muscles, too. When you have a good laugh, your whole body shakes like you're on a trampoline. Laughter heats up the body and makes you break out in a little sweat. So what're you going to laugh about today? Something that happened when you were a kid? Are you gonna laugh about a prank you played on your siblings when you were younger? Maybe you'll laugh about something that happened where you work. All of those fun, laugh memories are still in your mind. And each day you should pull one of them out and have yourself a feel-good, good-for-you laugh that has your sides aching!Now, let's see, what will I laugh about today? Love,