A Funny Thing Happened...(Ten Things of Thankful)

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

This week, i am thankful for the gift of laughter.  There have been several things others have said, or conversations i've had, or incidents that happened that have had me grinning or laughing this past week, and i'm grateful.

At last Friday's rEcess, one little girl asked me for some salad.  Since she has no allergies and her parents allow us to give her snacks, i gave her some.  While she did eat the salad, it turned out what she really wanted was the croutons.  She went back twice and put as many in her bowl as she could, with some salad on top.  Her mother later told us that her favorite gift in her Christmas stocking each year is garlic croutons!

One of our missionary friends showed up at Bible study.  Since the last i heard he was in Kenya, it was rather sudden.  He said, "Well, I was on my way to Peru and thought I would pop in!"  After laughing, i told him i was impressed to have a globe-trotting friend.

As we set up food for a light breakfast after the early church service last Sunday, one of the ladies asked Derek, a sexton, if he wanted something.  When he replied that he did not, she said, "Derek, you are the only employee in this place who is not a mooch!"  (Anyone who remembers the photo of the donut box with the sign "Don't even think about it" will especially understand.)

Dr. D was telling me how much her hips hurt when i went over to her house this week, and that she needed to get to Texas to her doctor for the treatment he gives her that makes her feel so much better.  We noticed a spider in her house, and she suddenly laughed and said, "I am so glad I'm not a spider, imagine having eight sore limbs!"  (The next day she left for Texas, and is back now, feeling better.)

Sweetie and i were driving down the road and he began talking about being out of one of his supplements and needing to go to the store.  When i asked which one, he said, "It's the one for my memory, you know, what is that stuff called?" and i said, if you can't remember, it's not working!

Upon noting to a fellow Bible study member that it was a good morning, he said, "It's still early!"  At that i said that you could always find something for which to be grateful, and he said, "I don't know about finding something to be glad about, I'm just glad when nothing goes wrong!"

Someone pointed out a very sure of himself person to me, and said, "He hasn't gotten the point of education yet."  What, i asked, is the point of education?  He said "Education is the process by which you move from a position of cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty."

Sweetie noted a billboard as we were driving and said, "It has a number sign and says 'Good Vibes'.  What does that mean?"  Upon trying to explain the meaning of "hashtag" to him, he kept insisting, "It's a number sign!"  As i tried again to explain that it has another meaning now, he said, "If it's that complicated, how will the people they want to advertise to with the billboard understand it?"  Trust me, i told him, you may not get it, but the people who are supposed to get it will get it.

At the ladies' circle meeting, Ms. CM asked me if we had really enjoyed the salad at rEcess (the one that had been robbed of croutons).  When i told her what happened, she said, "Well, if you ever need a salad again, all you have to do is give me one day's notice. All I have to do is go by the store for the greens, I always have a lot of the dressing in my refrigerator.  I make the dressing by the gallon because my daughter who lives next door sends my granddaughter over with the quart jar every few days and says 'we need a fill-up, Grandma!'"  (It's her famous Sensation Salad, and it really is good, and i just might take her up on the offer in April.)

At the shelter, Sweetie kept asking me what to do next as we worked, and then telling me, step by step, exactly what he had done and what he would do next.  After one such explanation, as he left the room, i turned to a co-worker and said, he really does want to help.  We both had to suppress our laughter, bless his heart.

These moments over the past week have reminded me that laughter is very good medicine.

No matter what's going on, i am sure you can find something for which to be thankful, and maybe even to laugh about.  Why not make a list (it doesn't have to be ten, we won't fuss) and link up with our wonderful hostess, Josie Two-Shoes, at Ten Things of Thankful.  (And if you question whether gratitude can change your life, i recommend The Gratitude Diaries, it will convince you.)

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Today is:

Arizona Renaissance Festival -- Apache Junction, AZ, US (the official sister event to the Robin Hood Festival in Sherwood Forest, England; Saturdays, Sundays, and President's Day through Apr. 1)

Carnaval de Barranquilla -- Barranquilla, Spain (four days of pre-Lent celebration and street dances that mostly shut down the city)

Deep Blue Day -- the IBM computer defeats chess champion Gary Kasparov, the first such victory for a computer, in 1996

Farm Toy Show and Auction -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (come watch the kids have fun with farm toys, and be one yourself again!)

Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck -- Malta

Gold Record Day -- Glenn Miller is awarded the first ever Gold Record, for "Chattanoga Choo Choo", 1942

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe -- Italy, especially in Trieste

Orchid Festival/Tropical Extravaganza -- Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London (through March 11)

Plimsoll Day -- honoring Samuel Plimsoll, the "Sailor’s Friend," who persuaded Parliament to have a maximum load limit on ships.

Royal Hobart Regatta -- Queens Domain Hobart and Derwent River, Tasmania, Australia (Australia's largest aquatic event, includes an Australian Wooden Boat Festival; through Monday)

Scout Sabbath -- BSA (Boy Scouts are encouraged to wear their uniforms to synagogue and represent scouting to their congregations)

St. Scholastica's Day (Patron of children in convulsions, nuns; LeMans, France; against rain, storms)

Try to Invent a New Jell-O Flavor Day -- it can't hurt to try

Umbrella Day

Anniversaries Today:

Poland is symbolically married to the Baltic Sea by Jozef Haller de Hallenburg, celebrating the restitution of Polish access to the water, 1920

Tom Thumb marries Mercy Lavinia Warren, 1863

Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert von Saxe-Coburg, 1840

Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War (a/k/a French and Indian War), 1763

Academie Francaise forms in Paris (by Cardinal Richelieu), 1635

Birthdays Today:

Lance Berkman, 1976

Laura Dern, 1967

Glen Beck, 1964

Lenny Dykstra, 1963

Cliff Burton, 1962

George Stephanopoulos, 1961

Greg Norman, 1955

Jim Cramer, 1955

Mark Spitz, 1950

Donovan, 1946

Frances Moore Lappe, 1944

Roberta Flack, 1939

Robert Wagner, 1930

Leontyne Price, 1927

Lon Chaney, Jr., 1906

Bertolt Brecht, 1898

Frances Margaret "Dame Judith" Anderson, 1898

Jimmy Durante, 1893

William "Bill" Tilden, 1893

Boris Pasternak, 1890

Samuel Plimsoll, 1824

Charles Lamb, 1775

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My Friend Flicka"(TV), 1956

"Death of a Salesman"(Play), 1949

"Puss Gets the Boot"(Cartoon, first Tom and Jerry short), 1940

"Icebound"(Pulitzer-winning Davis' Play), 1923

"All the News That's Fit to Print"(Slogan of the New York Times), 1897

"Les Contes d'Hoffman"(Offenbach Opera), 1881  

"The Lily of Killarney"(Opera), 1862

Today in History:

St. Paul is shipwrecked on the island of Malta, 60

Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch, 1098

The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days, 1355

Wampanoag Indians under King Philip kill all the men in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1676

Edmund Halley is appointed the second Astronomer Royal of England, 1720

The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, surrendering Canada to England, 1763

Simon Bolivar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru, 1824

The first US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia, 1863

The YWCA is founded in NYC, 1870

Nathaniel Carr Goodwin becomes the first actor to perform in two different cities on the same day, in Boston for a matinee, and then in NYC for and evening performance, 1887

Nearly 11,000,000 acres of land, ceded to the US government by the Sioux Indians, is opened for settlement, 1890

The New York Times begins using the slogan, "All the news that's fit to print," 1897

Japan and Russia declare war after Japan's surprise attack on Russian fleet at Port Arthur disabled 7 Russian warships, 1904

Britain's first modern and largest battleship "HMS Dreadnought" is launched, 1906

Baseball outlaws all pitches that involve tampering with the ball, 1920

New Delhi becomes the capital of India, 1931

The first singing telegram is delivered, by the Postal Telegram Company of NYC, 1933

Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, 1962

Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party, 1989

The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time, 1996

The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both, 2009

As part of a political transition, Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and representatives from the country's main political parties agree to transform Yemen into a six-region federation, 2014