Saturday, November 16, 2013

30 Ways to Stay Silly

Ways to stay silly are very important. If you lose your sense of humor, especial when you are married to such a man as I am, you are in for a dreary, tiring trek through life. There are things that will steal your silliness and turn you gray early if you let them, so the trick is find ways to replenish your silliness.

1. Have children- this can go either way, you have to not only have them but also let yourself laugh at them.
2. Enjoy a good comedy every once in a while- sometimes you just need a little outside infusion of silly.
3. Pull a prank or two- not malicious, just the fun kind that everyone can enjoy.
4. Laughing at your own dumb mistakes- so you set the oven to 400 instead of 200 and caught it just as the pie became inedible, so you were in such a hurry when you dressed your child that her pants are too short and her socks don't match. Take a moment, sigh, and then see the funny side of it.
5. Silly voices- especially when unexpected, they are the best, and when perfectly timed they will cause you the laugh so hard you cry.
6. Trying to do a cartwheel- it is not like ridding a bike.
7. Tickle Fights
8. Reading books in silly voices- I love to hear Daniel do The Monster at the End of This Book
9. Making spaceship noises while you drive- Nathan loves it too. Really its any kind of sound effects for every day things.
10. Wiggle when you feel like it- even if its just your feet under the table in a serious situation
11. Go to the Olive Garden- this may be more specific to me but sheer joy of going to your favorite place can make you very happy and silly
12. Have a "block party"-
Daniel to a overly tired Kara who was acting a tiny bit maniacal: "Kara, what are you doing?"
Me, giggling and acting so silly it was freaking out her new husband: "Its a block party!"
Thus it has been named and so it will always be called when I get to the "so tired I lose all sense of propriety and small bits of reality" stage of overtired.
13. When the urge to do something silly comes, don't stop it- embrace to silly from within
14. Go with the in-jokes even when you forget where they came from- those are the best ones anyway.
15. Rolling down a grassy hill- Daniel highly recommends it after job interviews and he is an expert of silly.
16. Read silly books- the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Peanuts strips (with emphasis) or Dave Barry to name a few.
17. Color- get a coloring book and go at it, it's therapeutic and fun.
18. Put a puppet on- even finger puppets bring out the silly in people
19. Climb a tree- while not silly in its self, you can not take yourself too seriously while in a tree.
20. Play games- Scattegories in particular makes me very silly
21. Rubber chickens- they stand alone
22. Tease children by eating candy rocks and pretending they are real- thanks to Mam-Maw I tried to eat a rock once.
23. Wearing fancy clothes to a non fancy place like Putt-Putt- the best after prom activity I have ever participated in.
24. Have a picnic- basket, blanket, the whole deal
25. Wander the toy aisles of Walmart after 10 pm- you may look like a creeper but it will make you giggle.
26. Draw on the paper table clothes at those restaurants- especially if you encroach upon one another and your drawings start interacting.
27. Doodle- these flights of fancy are very important to silly maintenance
28. Make fun of your physical ailments- your hip goes out and you can't walk straight? Join the ministry of silly walks. Your ankle becomes the size of your head? Declare it to have seceded from the US and name your new personal country.
29. Choose a place that normally does children's birthday parties and have yours there- We did this at a gymnastics place for Daniel's 31st birthday and all who attended agreed it was the best birthday party imaginable. And, by the way, there were no kids invited.
30. Stay up a little too late, have a little too much sugar, a little too much caffeine, all while surrounded by good friends and the silliness will show up with out you even realizing it. It is the perfect storm for silliness, and the perfect place to be silly.

2 comments:

  1. In college, I had a history professor who told a story about a professor he had had who walked in the first day and threw a rubber chicken at the wall. It got everyone's attention and then he went into his introduction without ever acknowledging the chicken except when he casually picked it up and swung it by it's feet while talking, then put it back in his briefcase. He'd always wanted a rubber chicken to do that. So one student went out and found a rubber chicken and gave it to him the day of the final. He was SO GIDDY. It was hilarious. He sat at his desk and made the chicken walk across the table and cluck and at one point, he interrupted us so he could throw it at the wall. He was probably in his 60's. One of my favorite college memories.

    I had him the next semester and he did indeed walk in the first day, throw it at the wall, then continue with his morning without missing a beat. It was awesome.

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  2. I wanna hear Daniel read "The Monster .." My older sister used to read it to our brother and he never knew whether to laugh or cry.

    We also need to play Scattegories.

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