I used to wonder how people could stand it in the States, working all those crazy hours. Today I worked a 12-hour day and it wasn’t the first one this month. It wasn’t even the third one. And the scary part was that I had to tear myself away. I wanted to stay and keep working, keep getting things done, and only the knowledge that working straight through for a week wouldn’t even get all the things done that I have to get done prevented me from staying longer. That doesn’t make any sense, but I plead half-full bucket of phlegm for brains in my defense. …Now, Phlegm For Brains WOULD be a great name for a band!
***
Yesterday, as we sat down on the playroom sofa so that I could read bedtime stories to the kids, Karin, who was on my right side, had the hiccups, and she sat there, quietly hiccuping, while I started to read the next chapter of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (which she ignored the first time around a few months ago, and has since demanded to be read again). After a few seconds, I started substituting the word ‘hiccup’ without breaking the flow of the narrative, for other verbs and nouns wherever it struck me as funny.
Karin made faces at me, and Martin got mad, but each time I tried to stop, some little devil in my head, along with Karin’s continued air-popping up-swallows, made me throw another one in. Then I would giggle madly and read along innocently for several sentences before another one slipped out. Finally Martin had had enough and he stomped out of the room, while I, obviously possessed of the devil, howled with laughter and entreated him to come back, and not get mad because it was FUNNY!
“No, it isn’t,” he grumped from his room, which just made me laugh all the harder. At which point Karin was kind of half-laughing too because I was laughing so hard, and a few minutes later, we were both guffawing wildly, then Karin’s amazement at my hilarity overcame her laughter and she sat and watched me with concerned eyes. Tears came squirting down my cheeks and I was gasping for breath and trying to pull myself together, when Karin solicitiously patted me on the arm and said, “Mamma, du får faktiskt lugna ner dig nu.”*
I’m getting the giggles again just thinking about it, and I had to literally FORCE myself to calm down enough to be able to finish reading the chapter and, even so, undignified snorts kept escaping me every now and then each time I managed to restrain myself from putting ‘hiccup’ into a sentence while Martin glared displeasure at me from across the intersection of his arms and Karin rolled her eyes with each lapse. Hee!
I love those fits of crazy laughter. They mostly tend to come during the silly zone, that time between 1 and 3 a.m. when your best girlfriends are over for a slumber party or you and your sister are trying to remember the names of the 7 Dwarves and after minutes of agonizing brain-wracking over the seventh that you just.can’t.remember… your sister suddenly blurts out, “Bashy!” in perfect seriousness and then you collapse on each other shrieking with laughter, and it still makes the 2 of you laugh years later, it was that funny.
***
I am reading a really good book. What is weird about it is that it has to do with vampires, which is not a subject I am particularly fond of or drawn to, or care much about. What is weirder is that only a few months ago I read another really good book which also had to do with vampires. And yet weirdest of all is that my friend Camilla, whose taste in books I trust implicitly just read a really good book that she is loaning me soon, which ALSO has to do with vampires. I would not have read that first book except that it happened to be by a favorite author of mine, whom I trusted not to let me down. I would not have read this book except that it was chosen for our book group, and I actually didn’t realize exactly what it was about beforehand as the blurb on it was rather vague. I would not willingly read this next book if it wasn’t Camilla recommending it to me, because hello! how many really good books about vampires can there BE out there, anyway?? And why are they all converging on me right now? Are they trying to tell me something? Do zay vant to zuck my bloooood?
HAHAHAHA! Sorry! I couldn’t resist. I so rarely can resist. *giggles madly*
The books:
Now: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Then: Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Next: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Really Great Writing Out There Right Now: “The exact spot where their hearts were as children…”
Bubbling Warbling Big Balloon Birthday Wishes to knacke_brod!
*Mama, you really have to calm yourself down now