Keeping it All in Perspective

So, I went out for lunch this past Friday with a friend I hadn't seen, or been in touch with, for about 20 years (thanks, facebook). She arrived, we hugged and exchanged compliments ("You look great! You haven't changed at all!"), ordered our food, and sat down to begin the process of catching up on the past two decades. Suddenly, I felt light-headed, faint. She was asking me questions, but it was all I could do to breathe. I apologized, explaining that I was feeling a bit dizzy and faint. At that moment, I fully understood Ricky Bobby's (Will Ferrell's character in Talladega Nights) urge to strip down to his underwear and run around the race track screaming -- had I been the lead character in a comedy film I might've stripped down and splayed myself out across a row of tables, laying in people's chicken salads and hummus, causing everyone around me to recoil in disgust as I'm led out of the cafe', big globs of salsa & bean dip dripping from my Hanes Her Way briefs.

Side note: Why would that not be funny? (because I guarantee you, a general audience would be groaning in disgust over such a scene). Why is it that middle-aged, soft-bellied guys can strip down to their tighty-whities, smear food all over their bodies and run around and it's funny, but if soft-bellied, middle-aged women do it, it's pathetic and disgusting? This begs further investigation for another post.

Anyway, it wasn't a film, it was real life, so I remained fully clothed and relatively composed as I said to my friend "Would you mind taking me home right now?"

It has been a rough winter, to be sure. There's a reason I called this blog "Incredible Exploding Head". I keep feeling like something's gotta give.

Thank God for Monty Python. Life can be so difficult, so sad, so painful -- it can be a challenge at times not to let it all get to you. Sometimes the only thing for it is to watch "The Fish-Slapping Dance", and just revel in the sheer absurdity and silliness of it all.