NO, SERIOUSLY I AM THE FUNNIEST

The joke with my daughter and I over the years was an ongoing duel of who was the funniest.  We would each declare ourselves to be the self proclaimed winner of the funniest person in our house category.  I have always loved humor, and those who partake of it.  There is a huge streak of relentless irreverent wit that flows effortlessly from who I am without even thinking about it.  I use it constantly as I think most things even if serious have a small vein of irony or a touch of ridiculous in them.  Even things out of our control at times.  I have and continue to find great humor in the midst of horrific things - maybe not at first glance.  Others tell me I am funny all the time.  But somehow inside my family - my daughter and husband, when I was married, they refused to crown me champion of humor.  When I sold real estate I once had a company placed referral for a microbiologist and his wife, a corporate executive from Bath & Body Works, from out of state.  Now right there is a stressful situation in and of itself.  It wasn't a typical show some folks a house kind of day.  I was with total strangers driving them around a 3 county radius for 8 full hours.  What to say for 8 hours, even from me who can talk about a toothpick or get conversation of out others like honey from a bee.  I decided to really just let myself go, to be who I really am, irreverence and sarcasm and all:)   Well, for all those hours I had that couple laughing hysterically as I recounted funny stories to them or made sarcastic comebacks.  The give and take made for a remarkably delightful day with them both.  At different times during the day during laughter they would say, "Lynn, you are the funniest person we've ever met!"  I decided to let them in on the on-going humor contest in my home.  They roared laughing at the mere thought that my family refused to bestow me the winning trophy for Best Person In The Humor category.  I asked if they would be willing to jot down on paper how they felt about my humor and delivery of it so I could legitimately prove that the outside world loved my humor:)  A couple weeks later I got a large package at my office with their name on the return address.  Inside was every product you could imagine from Bath & Body Works and a note that said, "Lynn...you are the funniest person we have ever met! Thanks for a great day!"   Laughing is such a huge part of who I am.  In fact, I have friends who because of distance we don't see each other frequently but stay in contact through email or face book.  Invariably if a season of time elapses without us seeing each other I will get a message from one of them that says, "I miss your laughter and hearing it!"   When I moved from the last place I lived a very close girlfriend of mine gave me a small gift.  I opened the card and gift when I got home that night.  In the card was written, "Lynn, no matter what's going on in your life or how blue I might be at times, when I am with you your laughter and humor that springs from your soul makes me smile.  You are like liquid sunshine!"  I opened the box to find a small necklace of a sun with the word SMILE splashed across it.  My now married daughter and I spent the day together last weekend.  We laughed hysterically about all kinds of things.  As I left her that day she turned after hugging me, "Mom, you really are funny."  I said I was glad she finally realized that I was the rightful winner of the title of funniest person in our family:)  She laughed.