Looking for Funny in Dangerous Places

TWO DAYS AGO

    My blog posts have not been funny lately. I miss my funny blog posts. My posts were funnier when my sense of order and peace was shaky. Now that I'm feeling like I have things "under control" I've gone back to being boring. Depression and trauma recovery have their advantages, huh? How sad. But, you know what they say about funny comedians: they are hiding their pain, very well, behind their humor. I really don't want painful circumstances, but I would like to be a little funnier than I have been.

(Sorry, Obama enthusiasts. I couldn't help getting a
 political jab in with this picture.
 I'm usually a-political, but I couldn't help it.)

     The sad thing is, I can't make myself be funny. It's easy to be boring. Excessively self-introspective. Morbidly serious. Those emotions and written expressions have their place. Sometimes. But I want funny. Laugh out loud hilarious. Gut-busting, tears- streaming- from- my- eyes  guffawing. How do I get back to being just a little funnier without being mean, negative, sarcastic, or too self-deprecating? I don't know. I'm going to think about that one. Perhaps I can look around and observe all the                             ludicrous things I see in my everyday life.



TODAY 
       It didn't take long! I took my 4 youngest girls to the park today after dropping books (overdue at that!) at no less than 3 libraries. So, we get to the lovely, sort-of woodsy La Canada park and begin to play. Fresh air. Running around. Lots of cute little kiddos at the park. Lovely community feeling in the air. How idyllic. Whoo-hoo!
     And then we saw it.
     The play structure to the north part of the park had plastic, orange lattice-type stuff tightly encircling it with yellow "CAUTION" tape intertwined around it. Huh? What was wrong with the play structure? We didn't go too close to it, until we were swinging on the tire swing. (That was really fun, by the way!) This is what we saw and then we understood. I began to joke with the girls what a "slide ride!" that would be if some poor, unsuspecting, practically blind kid didn't see the missing bottom to the slide. We laughed and continued the "what-if" banter, remarking that it actually looked like fun to just try it out and see what a thrill ride that would be. I would catch them, of course. Perhaps laughing about and imagining something so dangerous was silly and irresponsible of me. But, life is too short to not laugh at whatever you can. And me and my girls found this funny.

     Suffice it to say, we didn't indulge our crazy curiosity and break the rules of plastic caution tape and orange, plastic lattice stuff. (My girls' father, after all, does have a Masters degree in Public Health. He's always been Mr. Safety. Who am I to undo all the safety thinking he's impressed upon them over the years?! Far be it for me to do such an unthinkable thing!)
     At any rate, we left the park and went home safely, following most of the traffic rules and arriving home all intact. The whole slide thing has made me a little concerned, though: am I going to have one of those dreams tonight where I'll jolt awake because I'll have that sensation of falling?!  I suppose there would be some poetic justice in that....