those waves of uncontrollable laughter that hit at the most inopportune of times.
like during church. or during a wedding. or in the middle of a class. or at the dinner table. it usually happens when you are with another person--a sibling, a best friend, a spouse--because it's that synergistic feeding off each other that makes it so impossible to control. just as you are finally able to get a deep breath and begin to get your composure, you catch them out of the corner of your eye, or you hear their muffled snicker, or see them tighten their lips around their teeth in a desperate attempt to stiffle the giggles, and it starts you up--again. and round and round it goes--until finally, mercifully, the giggles dry up, and you wipe your moist eyes and can breathe again.
well, today it was with the doctor in the exam room at the health center where tessa and i got the giggles. she was getting a physical for school volleyball, and looking back i don't know whether it was the fact that the young intern kept calling tessa "amber," or that she is deathly ticklish and kept laughing whenever he placed the cold stethoscope anywhere on her body or palpitated her abdomen with his two fingertips, or whether it was that after asking her to flex and resist against his weight several major skeletal joints, he asked her to flex and resist her toes. the truth is, it was none of those things by itself, and it was all of those things together that made the giggling bubble forth.
as i sat in my little chair in the corner, trying to hide behind the paperwork i was holding, i kept thinking, "i'm the mom! she needs me to help her stop!" but i couldn't! i honestly couldn't. and while i tried, i had all these flashbacks of my brother and i as kids at the dinner table, alan and i newly engaged during a horrendous solo of "the Lord's Prayer" at a wedding, my friends and i performing a flute trio in high school, having to finally walk off the stage mid-song--really, really good times!-- and just as i got my composure, i saw tessa lying on her back on the exam table, shaking, while the dr. turned to jot down his notes, and it would start me up yet again.
another funny thing was that the intern didn't really notice, (i think he was new and was trying really hard to concentrate on what he was doing), until he literally couldn't even listen to her heart, from all the laughing, and therefore jiggling, she was doing.
we finally made it through, he actually gave up trying to listen to her heart and waited for the real doctor to come in and do it. as soon as she walked into the room, the giggles left. that intangible, tickly spirit seemed to seep out the door as soon as she opened it. i guess i should thank her; my face was beginning to hurt.
the dr. said that tessa's heart is just fine. that's always great news to hear. so, we did it. there were moments when i thought we wouldn't make it through.
i'm sorry i couldn't stay above it for you, tess. yes, a very small part of me is sorry.
but, the majority of me is really not sorry at all.
anybody have a good giggle story to tell?
2 comments:
Hi Julie!! Sherri P. told me about your blog :). Yay! Oh how much we have missed seeing your faces! Joaquin and I were just talking about that on Sunday. We need to have you over for dinner sometime soon. So much of life is in transition! Its a crazy kind of wonderful. God is so good.
Your post on the giggles was totally apprope today-- as I just had lunch with my dear Alissa Yang. She and Eric have moved back to CA!! And she and I have SO many giggle stories. Too many to count. :)
Blessings on you Martins!
I CAN'T BELIEVE you have a giggle story during the singing of the Lord's Prayer! My most embarassing giggle story ever is during the singing of the Lord's Prayer!!!! It was during (of all things!) David's Grandpa's memorial service. Oh, yes...it is true. David's sis, Diane, and I were sitting together. (I think this was before we were even married.) And the guy that was singing was VERY OLD...and he had a 'turkey neck'...and when he sang it wobbled a lot. We had already had a long, long sad day. The burial was first (sort of common in Nebraska) and the service following. We started with the tee-hee-ing and could not stop. One of the cousins was sitting behind us and she was SO mad at us...and who could blame her? I guess we needed comic relief. Sigh...
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