Is laughter really the best medicine?

I do not have stories about cancer, fundraising, insurance woes, etc. Today I want to talk about my afternoon and the amount of laughing that can be crammed into an hour long lunch break.
So, I was in Stanwood this morning working on an investigation for my job. Mom was at school finishing her “last day”… (although I have a feeling it is one of many “last days” of work for her). Angie, being a school employee, was home screwing around enjoying her summer off. Mom decided the three girls should meet for lunch. Mom picked the Chinese restaurant and told us to meet her downtown at noon. Mom and I showed up on time…. Angie was nowhere to be found. We ordered our food (and something for Angie). The food came….still no Angie. Eventually, after sneaking a bite or two of her food, we called her. She told us she had been sitting at the wrong Chinese restaurant. We laughed. In fact, as we sat down and ate our lunch, we laughed repeatedly about one thing or another. We laughed when a girl walked into the restaurant and asked me for an application….as if I worked there. After being extremely confused I directed her to one of the people in the maroon shirts with the apron around their waist. We laughed when it was time to open our fortune cookies and we went around the table reading our fortunes and making up every word of what it said. I asked Angie what hers said and apparently it read, “Pneumonia looks a lot like lung cancer.” If I recall, mine said, “Angie will be buying lunch today.” When we told mom to read hers she said, “Your new doctor is great and will provide many new opportunities.” We continued around the table as Angie informed us that she had another one on the back of hers. After 5 minutes of failing to read the real fortune, and laughing uncontrollably at the ridiculous things we were “reading” on our fortunes, I had a great idea. I took a piece of the orange that was provided as the dessert and dipped it in sweet and sour sauce and offered it to Angie…as a joke. Mom immediately said she would give us $5 to eat it. Neither of us cared about a five dollar bill, but we had just been challenged so of course we were going to eat it. I dipped a second orange in the disgustingly thick goop, and held it up toward Angie as if to say cheers. She apparently didn’t want to wait as she immediately put the entire orange slice in her mouth. Let’s just say that I never got a chance to put mine in my mouth because just as quickly as it went in…it came flying out. She was spitting up the orange and gagging at the horrible taste. I thought mom and I were going to pee our pants. I decided it was best to avoid the experiment and surrender the $5. Angie assured me that it was not worth it. We hugged goodbye and I left. Remember, I still had to work…unlike the school employees who began walking down the block to do some shopping. I decided the lunch hour wasn’t quite complete so I waited for Angie to get out of sight and I proceeded to write her a fake parking ticket for “parking in a handicapped spot” (even though she wasn’t). I put it under her windshield wiper and left. Angie called 45 minutes later saying, “You jerk, you scared the crap out of me.” I heard mom laughing in the background and that in itself was enough to make my day. Thanks girls for a great lunch, and even better company.

Still smiling-
Amy