Easily Amused

Yes, I confess, I am overly introspective and occasionally moody.  It's true, I'm afraid, that a curmudgeonly streak sometimes has me grumbling over stuff that's perfectly harmless.  But, I also love to laugh (even when the laughter is mostly on the inside).  So, as Bill Murray's character (in Caddyshack, I think?) might have said, I've got that going for me, which is nice.  

I like to laugh at the vicissitudes of life.  I like to laugh at the quirks of human behavior, especially when discovered in myself.  In fact, I once knew a woman who claimed that I don't have a sense of humor at all, but rather a highly attuned sense of the askew.  There's something to that.

I love life's small ironies.  A few years ago, I found myself unable to find a computer file I had created that contained a record of changes made to a database, used to check those changes against the paperwork.  After a frustrating and slightly anxious half hour, I finally found it.  And the reason I had trouble was that, in naming the file, I had misspelled the word "proofreading".  I chuckled over that for days, and now and then pull it out of my memory to savor it, as a greedy collector might with an especially prized acquisition.

Not only to I love to laugh, I love to bring laughter out of others.  Those who follow me on Twitter know that I enjoy being something of a wise guy (though never, I hope, in a mean way).  I find fun in choosing to misinterpret a comment or ponder a misspelling.  Recently Sajabla mentioned her upcoming JDRF "wlak".  Of course I knew what she meant (and you should go donate to it right now), but first commented on it and then entertained myself for a few moments wondering just what a "wlak" might mean.  I finally decided that wlak is the latest Asian herbs quack are promoting as a diabetes cure.

Humor plays an important role for me.  It dissolves self-pity and aggravation.  A bit of laughter can deflate a little bit of self importance, and a really good laugh is sometimes sufficient to take the edge off a bad day.  And, of course, it's very helpful in dealing with diabetes.

I began this post with a couple of confessions.  If accused of being "easily amused", I'd have to plead guilty.  But what makes that a bad thing?!?