LOL (Love Of Laughter)

i love to laugh. (cue the sugary mary poppins chorus) but really, who doesn’t?

hopefully each of us finds at least a brief chuckle each day, but the true pearls are the unexpected incidents that catch you off guard and provoke side-splitting, tears-streaming, pee-your-pants whoops of laughter. these valuable occasions have more merry merit than your average funny incident, because they have the power to rouse fresh peals of laughter each time they are recalled.

you know what i mean: the episode you can hardly retell without dissolving into fits of giggles; the instance that causes an involuntary snort or at least a suppressed grin as you visualize the moment again later; the perfectly-timed clever quip that seems to grow in hilarity each time it is repeated.

these are precious gems that should be archived and revisited, and milked for all their mirthful worth. to squeeze as much comic mileage as possible out of these amusing memories, i have fastidiously kept a growing list for the past 14 years of the times i have been compelled to spontaneously laugh out loud.

it is aptly titled “laugh out loud list.” i’ve been building this list since before the swell of instant messages and prolific acronym usage, so i’m thinking of updating it to the more hip and modern “LOL list.” (although i’m sure that still leaves me appropriately behind the times for my age.)

my close friends and family know about the list, and we have gone to it on difficult or dismal days seeking a guaranteed pick-me-up, or during giddy late night laugh-fests to keep the riot rolling. quite a while back i had a request to feature some of those stories here, and i’d welcome the chance to flesh out some of the details before they fade. i know that soon the cryptic phrases “herding jelly tag-team style” and “bryan’s dramatic dixie chicks concussion” won’t bring to mind the same vivid response as they used to.

so my plan is to occasionally choose an entry from the list that isn’t too extremely “you had to be there” (lest you move from speculation to conclusion of my craziness) and describe the situation in more detail here. some of these stories may include you, so be prepared to have your humorous escapades broadcast to the world. (don’t worry, this blog has a following of approximately eight, so your entertaining antics are still fairly safe.)

stay tuned for the the witty remarks, oblivious faux pas, klutzy blunders, and chaotic scenes that have induced uproarious hysterics for me. i hope i can pass the laughter on, even if it’s just a slight snicker.