The Laugh Spiral

This post is dedicated to Aunt D, a lovely woman with the most infectious laugh.  

Your laugh will forever echo in my memory and warm my heart.

This week has come in like a lion and lets hope it goes out like a lamb.  It seems just when I get my sea legs there is another surprise.  Yesterday's news was a death in the family.  I have been trying to concentrate on all the things that I am grateful for, as without that talisman there is a high risk of me turning into a puddle.  

I have many blessings in my life and my family is definitely one of them, especially my brother.  J and I share a similar sense of humour and today we were on fire.  It started with a random comment about something that I had blogged about. Which led to a mocking statement, a visual picture and   laughter.  I fell into the laugh and I found that I couldn't stop.  This of course made my brother laugh harder, which made me spiral out of control.  There was snorting, wheezing and squeals.... ohh and the tears, but for once they were tears of enjoyment.

At one point my brother commented "Now, now- you're getting into ugly laugh territory!"

My response.....peels of more laughter.  I was laughing so hard Ferg thought I was in distress and he ran over and tried to apply his own version of CPR.   In case you were wondering doggie CPR involves repeatedly jumping on the distressed person's chest and trying to clear the air way with his tongue.  Now I was laughing uncontrollably and trying to fend off the dog which resulted in....... of course more laughter  

That's when the gagging started.  Yup, I laughed so hard I almost puked.  Gimli came running over at the first hint of a dry heave.  Sadly he has never lost the puppy response to regurgitation.  Thank goodness I was able to contain myself before the situation became critical.    

Man I needed that.  

As I was walking the dogs I was trying to remember the last time I laughed that hard and then it hit me..... the eve of my sister's wedding.  (At the time we all agreed what happened in Regina stayed in Regina but my mom has agreed to let me share this story with everyone, as she knows it would have amused Aunt D and the room would have filled with her trademark laugh). 

My sister insisted we play a game the night before her wedding.  The game was Cranium, the teams were me and J against N, S and Mom.  We are all pretty competitive and were in it to win it.   Through most of the game we were neck and neck.  Then I pulled a game card that required me to pick an opposing team member and move that person's limbs to act out an activity.  I picked my mother.  The action I believe was cross country skiing.  My mom stood there and I started moving her around.  Well, it seems all the movement caused a chain reaction in her gastrointestinal system and the chicken paprikash we had for supper would soon make a return that would haunt us all.

I started moving her arms fast and nudged her legs forward in a reciprocal fashion.  During the height of the movement Mom started tooting.  It was a small toot at first, but that was quickly followed by a series of short rapid loud farts that had a staccato rhythm.  I'm standing behind her trying to keep her moving, but laughing so hard I am close to peeing my pants.  My brother and sisters were rolling in their chairs, tears streaming down their faces.  It struck S's funny bone so hard she was repeatedly say her trademark "Sheshk" and wiping the tears off her face.  It was no use, as quick as she wiped them away more took their place.  My mother couldn't help but join in the laughter.  The only problem was with every laugh there was a toot.  I couldn't take it any more and sprinted for the washroom, in fear that there would be a puddle to laugh about if I stuck around.  

Our laughter went on so long and was loud we woke up my father, who normally can sleep through a bomb.  He stalked out in his tightie whities and stood there staring at all of us.  By this time we were double over, gagging and gasping for breath.  When his "stern stare" couldn't sober us up, he demanded to know "What are you doing?"   Someone was able to eventually choke out that we were playing a game.  He shook his head, turned on his heel and went back to bed, probably questioning all our sanity.  Man that was a moment for the family history book.  To this day we all get a little nervous when Mom eats chicken.

Laughter is truly the best medicine.  Thanks for sharing your medicine with everyone Aunt D.