My sister calls, "Are you going to the thing tonight?"
I'm in my bedroom, wearing a pair of comfortable sweats, curled up on my bed and watching a movie. "I'm not going. I don't want to go and I'm not going. I already told everybody I don't want to go. I don't even like spaghetti. The Cowboy can take the kids if he wants to go - he likes spaghetti, but I'm not going."
"But, it would be so much more fun for me if you went," she pleads, using her most previously successful sisterly giggles.
"Sorry. I'm not going," I stretch out my legs on the bed and put my arm behind my head. "Nope ..."
An hour later, I walk down the stairs in a pair of black slacks, pink top and heels. My brother is in my kitchen with my dad and sister and my entire family. My brother is in his Scout uniform (long story). "Where are you going so dressed up?" my brother asks and they all look in my direction.
"I'm going to the d*** spaghetti dinner," I sit in the nearest chair.
They all laugh.
We are, if nothing else ... a bunch of kids (my sister, brother and I) that always do the right thing!
This was a Boy Scout Fund Raising Spaghetti Dinner. I did not want to go. I had no desire to go. I was not required to go.
I went.
Not for my kids. Not for my husband. But ... for my sister and for my brother. And for the Scouts (*holds up three fingers - the Scout sign or something*).
So ... I'm at the Boy Scout Fund Raising Spaghetti Dinner, sitting across the round table from my sister and brother-in-law. He says something funny. I find it funny. I often find what he says funny. I say, "You think you're funny, don't you?" meaning that he really does - think himself funny.
He curls over and laughs and says, "Yeah," through a huge, burly smile.
"I know you do. You think you are funny," and I know this because of the smile he gets through his eyes when something witty comes out of his mouth. It's like the moment he says the funny thing, his eyes twinkle with satisfaction and you can see that he is happy with himself. It's like the way Jerry Seinfeld is. Jerry Seinfeld does this when he says something funny. You can see on his face that he is about to say something funny because he has already amused himself before he has even said the words. He already knows and believes it is funny before it even comes out of his mouth. It is funny - to him.
My brother-in-law laughs, "Yeah," he says.
"You don't even have to have anyone around, to have a good laugh at yourself, do you?" I say.
He is still laughing at himself and says, "No."
I love this about him. Because - he is funny. And, he doesn't have to have anyone acknowledge anything he says because as long as he finds what he says, humorous - it counts. If what he says, makes you laugh, then that is just a bonus - and it usually does. But, I believe it is secondary to the joy he gets from his own humor.
This is a unique quality - this ability to make yourself laugh. And ... it is fun to watch and hard not to envy.
I am lucky I get to watch him often. I will try to learn this craft ... this humor ... this joy.
On the upside ... It wasn't so bad. My kids won prizes in the raffle. I bought $5.00 worth of delicious cupcakes for myself and ... my sister had more fun because I was there.
Note to self: Sister and brother both ... owe me one!