Favorite Things Thursday: Laughter with Old Friends

I love to laugh! If there were one intangible thing, I would never want to live without, it would be laughter. Okay, now my brain is going, "yeah, but what about love?" Well, like those plaques I've seen in stores, my three top intangibles would be life, love and laughter.

Recently Cardiogirl wrote a post about her most treasured memory. She drew a vivid picture (with words) of the deep side-splitting laughter which is characteristic of her relationship with her brother. Her explanation caught me off-guard and plunged me into a bit of a nostalgia chasm. It was like I was hit by a brick and picked up the brick and said, "Oh yeah, I remember these bricks. They were really solid and made a good foundation."

For the past two and a half years, my life has been devoted to caring for our two young toddler boys. In order to make this a priority (time-wise), we felt it was necessary for me to leave my full-time job and stay home with the boys. And, in order to do that, we made the move to my husband's grandmother's home on farm land outside of Indianapolis. Although this home is idyllic (and an absolute haven for boys), and although I love this opportunity to spend such a large chunk of my time with my boys, it has rendered me literally friendless. Despite efforts to develop new friendships by finding a suitable church home and getting involved in playgroups and such, I have fallen into the common trap for women with several small children - a deep and abiding sense of isolation.

Then, a few weeks back, I popped over to Kori's blog and read one tiny sentence in the middle of a post, saying she was preparing for the annual women's retreat for our old church back in DeKalb (must have been around the same time as I read Cardiogirl's treasured memory post). My mind brought up all kinds of memories of those women's retreats.

We would pay over a hundred dollars and stay in a retreat center in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Our evenings were always filled with riotous, roll on the floor laughter. Several stories were staples, like Cheryl L's prom story and Laurie C's snake story. We also played several wild games. I remember one included us ad-libbing various actions while rotating seats in a pretend car - vague memories of someone going into labor. Another one, which left me forever feeling like the final moron in the room, was called "The Broom Dance" - I never did figure it out, they had to tell me the answer! Groan!

Thankfully, when I popped over to the church's website, I discovered that they have a new format. The retreat cost was only $15 and included a Beth Moore Bible Study from Friday night through Saturday afternoon, right at the church. When I ran the idea by my husband, he was eager to make it happen for me (i.e., he recognized the dehydrated nature of my heart and soul).

My friends, Andy and Renee, let me stay with them, which gave me a chance to see their five kids (man kids grow quickly!). I also sent out an e-mail to several of my old writer's group buddies, hoping we could get together on Saturday night to eat Giordano's pizza (Sycamore now has a small store-front Giordano's - when we lived in DeKalb, I would sometimes drive to Rockford to eat at Giordano's because their stuffed spinach pizza is fantastic) and watch an Anne Lamott DVD (passed on to me from Cardiogirl's husband).

The retreat was wonderful (and I will have to post more about it at another time), but the very best medicine for my relational drought came on Saturday evening. Sadly, by Friday night, I hadn't heard a positive response from anyone in the writer's group. Saturday morning, I made a general announcement inviting the women from the retreat. The retreat was slated to end at 4:30 and I set a meeting time of 6:00.

At lunch, I happily ended up sitting by a woman named Allison, who is in the current writer's group. She asked me if I had contacted Kyle (who is sort of the head honcho now that I've moved away), because he has an e-mail list for all of the writer's group. I chuckled and informed her that I was the person who started the original group, and did send the invite to Kyle, but only to the others who had been regulars back in my day.

That night, five women showed up to enjoy pizza. Four were old friends of mine, and the fifth was Allison. We had such a wonderful time, that Saturday night, when I finally got to bed, my mind was abuzz with words for a post to describe the benefits my soul experienced. Alas, I was too tired, and the bed too cozy, to get up and write down those thoughts (note: this is a writer's no-no!)

As Laura (my funny friend, who last year commented that my Valentine treat might have been more appealing if I hadn't served it on a toilet seat lid - ha!), Yolanda and I sat around waiting for others to come, we perused the newest church photo directory. This brought lots of memories and humor (from past photo shoots and stories of retreats and events).

Laura updated me on her kids, including a story about texting her older kids. She explained that her daughter, Lisa, loves the "Back to the Future" movies, so when she noticed on-line that Christopher Lloyd's house was burned in recent forest fires, she texted the information to Lisa. Lisa sent this reply, "That is sad! I can't help but feel somewhat responsible."

Her mother texted back, "Why would you feel responsible????"

Lisa wrote, "Because someone once told me - 'Only YOU can prevent forest fires!'" I think she gets her sense of humor from her mother.

Laura also told me about how she responded to her youngest son's recent report card. She said she looked it over and told him, "Well, at least you are doing good in SCIENCE!"

Of course, this floored her son, who retorted, "I got all A's, Mom!"

Laura responded, "Yeah, Sciene - A plus! But what about these two MINUSES???"

When Allison arrived, it was clear to see that she was just going to slip into an easy banter as well. She told a story that led Yolanda to burst into a song, which only she knew. We were laughing pretty hard, both at the story and Yo's song. Later, while eating, Allison jumped up and said, "I'm a plumber's wife! I hear a drip!" As she made her way over to the kitchen to check it out, Laura said, "Oh, I thought she was going to adjust her pants!"

We ended up laughing the night away. Several times, Allison mentioned the DVD and we did intend to get to it, but it never happened because we were having too much fun enjoying each other's company. I ended up leaving the DVD with her so that she can share it at a future writer's group gathering. And I certainly didn't mind another reason to keep in touch with a new funny friend.

Now, I just need to find some funny friends down here in Indiana. I think my sons are quite humorous, but it was sure refreshing to laugh with other women. If God could somehow transplant our idyllic home to the outskirts of DeKalb, I'd be most grateful.

As I was washing my hands this afternoon, I decided that the problem lies in our soap. While vigorously scrubbing the germs away, I noticed that the label on the soap container reads "Hypoallergenic * Non-Comedogenic!" Who knew I was washing away all the funnies in life??

This is just a season. New friends are around the corner (these little boys just refuse to stay little). But, for now, I'm clinging tightly to this favorite thing, laughter with old friends (how I wish I had taken a picture).