It's Good to Laugh

Yesterday we had another brilliant thunderstorm. The temps plummeted from 90+ to 70's in a half hour and trees fell all around us as we headed for home after a day spent looking for MOB dresses - still no luck - and walking the orchard to determine tent placement. I am trying not to stress out over this, but we are T minus one month and my wonderful husband now wants to go back to square one and forgetaboutda tent on the mountain. He thinks we should just feed people standing up, on the rooftop terrace. I initially suggested this when he started to complain about the tent, and our inability to place it right in front of a barn where we wanted it. I never dreamed he'd agree. I was trying out that psychological trick - enter into the fantasy with them, then they will come to the right conclusion. It didn't work!

But we had a good laugh. We were discussing the "family tree fan program." I spent a half day changing the publisher text boxes to script, and managed to move the names around (names went all the way back to the couple's great grandparents) in order to make them look somewhat beautiful in amongst the tree's branches, in a gestalt kinda way. But he wanted them traveling up separate branches so that people could follow the family lineage lines; and I'd ruined his symmetry. I always colored outside the lines - you can see the problem. We started to argue. And then, all of a sudden, he started to laugh. It was a real belly laugh and he was crying, the laughter came out so strong. I didn't get it. And you have to understand that we've been married over 30 years and I usually get it, even before he does! He was laughing, and crying, so hard I had to wait 'till he could talk for the explanation. And it was good, because it sent me right up there laughing with him, till I thought I'd pee in my seat. He said, "I'm not sure why it's so important to me to make sense of our family."

All the Jewish names go up the left side of the tree. The Irish names fill in the middle and the right side of the tree. There is really no explanation why some marriages work and others don't. Many people thought we'd never last, and yet, here we are, still laughing, still very much in love. We are less than a month to a wedding, and yet I know with him by my side everything will be alright. My daughter called me tonight. She said her groom-to-be has so much to do; he has to have his applications ready for a fellowship before the wedding, he has a big presentation to make to his colleagues, and he's going to be Chief next year and has to work out a schedule where they will no longer have to take "call." In other words, this is the last group of residents who will be so unbelievably sleep-deprived, you would never want them making life and death decisions about your family member. Still, she made him go to a swimming pool with her today- on this rare day they had off together - and told him he could work in the sun! After all, this is my Jersey Shore girl, she has seen people working on the beach...it's not altogether impossible. She adds spice to his life, he adds centering. You can see that they will be laughing together for many years to come!