When was the last time you laughed your ass off?

Mine was last week.

And though I tend to laugh often, last Friday was different.

I wasn’t supposed to be laughing.

I was in a hospital room with Rich before a small surgery (he is fine). Everyone in the vicinity was quiet. Nurses walked past. People whispered.

Rich was putting on his hospital gown. He had it on “correctly” with the opening in the back, when I suggested that he had it on backwards. The poor soul listened to me, took the gown off, and put it back on with the opening in the front.

The look on his face, coupled with the surroundings, and I started laughing.

Rich was still trying to figure out the garment, which ties went where. I tied the top two, which made a green choker necklace. We tied the gown closed, but he looked rather exposed as he sat down.

He was giving me a look that said I didn’t know what I was talking about and I was trying to convince him that he had it on correctly. I was trying not to laugh, trying to be serious, and then I was laughing, and then I couldn’t stop laughing, and then I got stuck there. Frozen. Slightly moving with my mouth hanging open, leaning over, not quite breathing, trying not to make any noise. Rich was laughing too, at the state I was in, both of us hoping the nurses wouldn’t come in.

Until Linda the nurse did come in and immediately state, “You’ve got that on backwards.”

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Later I was thinking of the times this has happened in my life. It’s not so much that the thing itself is funny, it’s your reaction to it, usually spurred on by the person you are with.

I have friends I can recall having this experience with, walking down streets, laughing so loud and so hard, and not caring if anyone thinks we’re crazy, because, honestly, it doesn’t get much better than this. Laughing with friends or spouses or children, or anyone really, is a wonderful thing and I need more of that in my life, especially lately, and I bet you do too.

(Video below and photo above from winter 2017)