the best medicine

Hi there.

Nice to see you again.

Truth be told, I wasn’t very inspired to write this week. I’m struggling to be in front of the computer any more than necessary after spending about 50 hours in front of it Monday-Friday.

Luckily, as usually happens, I ran into some inspiration at just the right time. A few mornings ago, my mom and I were talking about the gift of Dennis making us laugh on a regular basis – either laughing with...or at him – and Dennis proclaimed, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, you shouldn’t be laughing at anyone else!”

There it is: a thought for this week.

I had a good laugh at myself this week. In a desperate attempt to do a workout that involved weights (that weren’t rocks, as Dennis proposed), I followed my sister’s lead and tried to order some online. Just observing how much the tables have turned was funny enough: a former personal trainer asking her sister who once said, “These legs weren’t made for walking” where she got her dumbbells.

It got better.

First of all, I was apparently about a week too late. I searched about ten different online sites for dumbbells, but every site was either miraculously sold out or only had weights less than 5 lbs. Dick's had 8 lbs, but...

...nope. Not good enough.

Ideally, I wanted some 7s and some 12s. That way, I could hold two 7s in one hand and get up to 14 lbs, which gave me three distinct weights. But beggars can’t be choosers, so, after way too much analysis and even more searching on websites like Fitness Factory and Fitness Avenue (I guess there's not a whole lot of room for creativity with the names), I finally settled on the 8-pounders from Dick's. They were $11.99 and added up to $20 with shipping and tax, but still acceptable, and definitely cheaper than most of the others I had seen elsewhere.

I couldn’t wait for them to arrive!! I did my yoga or band workout each day, thinking, “But wait until I have those weights! Things are gonna change!” A whole new world was about to open up – a beautiful example of how much many of us are really tapping into the joy of the small these days.

The box finally showed up on the front porch, and I ceremoniously carried it inside. It was heavy, so I knew it was them. With a rapidly beating heart, I threw caution to the wind and ripped open the box to find…

...dumbbell.

Singular.

The fact that I thought the box weighed 16 lbs was a little disturbing and a true testament to how little I’ve lifted in the past several months, but it wasn’t quite as disturbing as the fact that I only had one weight.

Papa suggested, “Well, of course! They’re heavy, so they only send one at a time!”

I really wanted to get on board with that, but I had my doubts. I went to dicks.com and read the fine print. Well, actually, I read the very large, bold print: “8 LB DUMBBELL.” I guess I hadn’t taken the lack of "s" literally.

After a few minutes of “WTF?!” frustration, I had a good laugh.

Dennis says he’s going to buy me another one, because he’s going to go crazy every time he sees that one, red dumbbell lying around. I’m open to that.

Yes, we’re all trying to laugh at ourselves.

Sunday was Easter, and, since none of us planned ahead, the Easter Bunny didn’t make it this year. Therefore, I tried to create some festivity by making carrot cake cupcakes. As I opened the oven door to put the pan in the oven, I saw something in the back right corner: a very sad-looking, dried up potato.

Papa had baked some potatoes five days before, and I guess he left one in there. It was wrinkly and rock hard from being baked four times more than necessary.

As he put it, “You had an Easter hunt surprise after all! An Easter potato!”

Another good laugh.

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It's as good a time as any to laugh at ourselves. Times are ridiculous and scary and unknown, but laughter is always good for the soul. Emotions are wild roller coasters some days, but as long as laughter is in there somewhere, we’re all doing okay.

Now, if you'll please excuse me, I have to go do my single dumbbell workout just to prove to Dennis that it was worth $20. And it was. So worth it.

Thanks for stopping by. Keep laughing at yourself and with others, and keep sharing your stories, because someone wants to hear them.