Funny Girls

Among the manifold blessings from my Ds, a major one is they they both have awesome senses of humor.  The conventional wisdom in our family is that D2 is funnier -- since she has a knack for claiming ownership of very funny lines, which sometimes turn  out to be her sister's work.  But D2 has a sardonic sense of the world that anyone who appreciates true humor finds wonderful.

But this am, D1 had me in stitches, as she shared her experiences from this past weekend. I find things funny both when someone acts against their nature (fish out of water) as well as when they act very much consistent with their nature (fish in the water, swimming past a jellyfish).

D1 has never been a fan of the great outdoors. When she was not even 2, she refused to walk barefoot on the grass. Wifey thought something was wrong about that, and discussed it with pediatrician. They figured out that even at 2, D1 realized that our dogs crapped on the lawn, and she wanted no part of that on her tender feet.

When she got older, she developed a strong fear of stinging insects, particularly bees.  Our memories of visiting the cave dwellings of ancient Indians in New Mexico are strong with D1's near panic attack that the bees attracted by New Mexico's many sunflowers might sting her. Same thing at Windsor Castle -- I had to carry her 9 year old self into the building, as the bees were gathered in the beautiful gardens.

A nature hike in North Carolina with Wifey, Edna, and her girls was memorable again for D1's not liking it at all -- one of Edna's girl's friends remarked "Wow -- you are one uptight chick."  And indeed she was.

Well -- D1 is also a good and true friend, and her longtime buddy Hannah held a bridal weekend --in the woods north of San Francisco.  Despite a crazy busy schedule, D1 flew to SFO, ubered miles to their mutual friend Nicole's place, and from there drove up the California Coast.

The other young women were all lovely, and "scary smart" -- all Stanford grads. Hannah is probably D1's brightest friend, and that's saying something, as she has some wildly accomplished friends.

The centerpiece of the trip was a nighttime kayak trip in frigid waters, to see some kind of bioluminescent  critters.  The kayak trip was 3.5 hours.  There were no bees, but warnings of jumping stingrays, and poisonous river sharks.

D1 related to the tale to me like a fine stand up comedian. I was laughing out loud, as they say.  She was hilarious.

Fortunately, there were no fatalities, or even bee stings. The greatest trauma for D1 was that she actually drank some Swiss Miss hot chocolate, something she would NEVER do under normal circumstances, but actually did to combat the near hypothermia. 

I think all future kayaking will be on Biscayne Bay, where the water is always at least 80 degrees, even in winter.

So D1 made my morning. I've asked her to share her tale again Wednesday night -- my birthday. We're going to dinner with her and Joey and Paul and Patricia at Il Gabbiano, which is Italian for "extremely expensive Italian food and worth every penny."

So on this hot Monday, my D1 made me laugh, a lot, The Ds are very competitive -- D2 is under pressure. I know she'll come through, too.