Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Let Your Silly Self Emerge

In a recent blog post, Vicki over at Not So SAHM was lamenting the loss of her “silly” side, her general inability to “get her silly on.”

It can be challenging, that’s for sure. Times are tough. Anxiety is high while optimism is low. Definitely hard to get silly in the wake of everything that is going on in the world in between paying bills, working overtime to do it, raising your kids, caring for aging parents (or in some cases, both) and wondering if you’ll have a job just to keep it all together.

But, if you’re me, you get an email that really brightens things up. It lets you know that Scrapbook Escape, or as we’ve come to call it “crop camp,” is all set. The annual scrapbooking weekend – which puts about two dozen women with all their scrapbooking gear and a whole lot of snacks in a hotel for two days and two nights in January – is a virtual hotbed of silliness. See what I mean?
Two steps back to explain. Shortly before crop camp this year, my good friend KayO sent me a link to the Friends’ quiz to find out which Friends’ character you are most like. I shared this with my cropping buddies, the MonkeyGirl, M, K, and J. Oddly enough, without telling each other who we came up with, we ALL came up with CHANDLER! (Except for J, who came up with Rachel. She ultimately rethought one or more responses, retook the quiz and came up with, what else, CHANDLER.)

It was too late though. I’d already long since embarked on my adventure into silliness by making Chandler masks and a Rachel mask for our weekend. (I’m generally armed with some sort of surprise at each of these events. It’s one of the many things I contemplate year-round on long bus rides.) So think me odd for creating it ... but my friends were willing enablers AND accomplices! Silly rules.

The blog has given me yet another venue to display this silliness as well as a new feature: a countdown clock! As you read this, you can glance near the upper right corner and see just how much time is left until the Superbowl of Silliness officially kicks off.

But that's just one side of my silly. The mother and I cannot walk past a display of those swimming noodles -- the giant foam tube things -- without challenging each other to a duel. I have no idea how this started. It's just one of those rare piece of pure silly the mother and I share. But imagine the silliness of two grown women in the middle of a store squaring off with foam noodles ...

Or how my godmother and the mother and I greet one another: "Eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" (Not a Fonzie Ayyyyyy. More like a Heyyyyyyyyyy sans the H.)

Or how I sing parts of certain commercials to Ozzie. (Red Robin. YUMMMMM!) And he responds by going completely spastic.

It's just a collection of stupid little things that make me laugh. Sometimes, they make other people laugh, too. Laughter truly is the best medicine. And our psyches need a regular dose of it.

So break out your own silliness … regularly. Life is short. Cherish your inner silly self, and in particular, all those who nurture it. I know I do.

7 comments:

Jayne said...

I have a co-worker, a firefighter/paramedic who also happens to be a Baptist preacher, with whom I engage in regular bouts of silliness. We dance the "Thriller" dance, we prank call each other, we get into pretend arguments that culminate in shouts of "I know YOU are but what am I?!!" We decide on a Word of the Day and try to get our co-workers to say it, we trade the same piece of gum back and forth, we assign Disney character nicknames to fellow co-workers for the day. And--my current favorite game--we have an Accent of the Day (Southern belle, for example)and all unofficial business must be spoken in it. No shortage of silliness over here.

Why S? said...

I like to make monkey sounds. I'm very good at it and for some reason, I prefer to do it when doing my makeup. I also like to hold the kitten in my arms and dance. And when talking to my husband, I like to provide both ends of the conversation. It's easier that way.

Jayne, you trade gum with your co-workers? I'll never have a work relationship (or any relationship)that close.

Vicki said...

Thanks for outing your silliness! I needed that. I have made an effort since my post and I was silly last night with my girls. It's not as doom and gloom as I thought it was...my moon is waxing, know what I mean? ;)

And yeah, sharing gum...I won't even do that with my hubby...you know me and spit.

Ann said...

Silliness? In MY HOUSEHOLD? Get out.

No, we LIVE ON IT. We are nothing if not dorks.

NV said...

LOVE all the silliness out there! So glad I'm not THAT weird after all. :-)

Bramblemoon Farm said...

Stopping in from BPOTW. HAIL to the silliness! We quote Napoleon Dynamite at our house- never fails to get a laugh from us all. Nerds we are. We also quote Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe on a regular basis. We just can't help it.

NV said...

BrendaJean -- Welcome and thanks for stopping by! Yep. We love us some silly here, too. Sure makes life a lot better. :-)