The AHA of Gut-Wrenching Laughter

December tends to be a very busy month, evident by the fact that I have fallen way behind in recording my moments of AHA. This weekend, however, was once again filled with good friends, tons of laughs and endless AHA.

I went to a Creative Memories consultant scrapbook retreat, which in and of itself is AHA because I love looking at and creating with my photos, but don't always get much time to do it. So looking forward to 3 (almost) full days of nothing but scrapbooking was thrilling to me! A good friend of mine had come up from Florida just for this occasion, and I was really excited to see her. I know the other 15 or so women who were attending, but I don't know any of them very well and they don't know that much about me. We are all consultants together, and are on the same team, yet there's still a big gap between knowing who someone is and really knowing them.

I can't get into specific details (partly because the stories are too crazy, and partly because I can't even remember all of the stories), but the conversations that arise from a group of women who spend hours and hours together are mind-blowing! The laughs started right away Friday night and the giggles got worse as the hours rolled on. By 11:00 or so, all 9 or 10 of us in the room were laughing so hard we were crying and could barely breathe! I finally made myself go to bed, only because my head cold was starting to get the best of me and I literally could not breathe through my nose (which was really beginning to get annoying). I knew I needed some sleep in order to make it through the rest of the weekend. If that's what Friday was like, there was no way I was going to miss Saturday and Sunday!

I slept in a bit on Saturday, which was very much needed, and had some nice conversations over a delicious breakfast, before showering and hitting the books again. A few more women showed up to scrap with us for the day. We immediately started recycling some of the jokes that had us crying the night before, and in explaining them to those who were absent, they became that much funnier! Some new jokes arose, as well, and the ridiculous conversations ensued. I think it was kind of a miracle that any of us got anything done at all, really. We spent so much time laughing and circling the jokes around and around, we continued to disrupt each other over and over again. By late Saturday evening, my gut began to hurt. My abs haven't had that much of a workout in quite a long time!

Saturday night was the worst. As it got later and later, we all got giddier and giddier. The giggles set in and would not go away! A few of the girls got laughing so hard they couldn't even tell the story they were trying to tell, which made the rest of us laugh even more! By the time we all dragged ourselves up to bed, it was well after 1am. 5 of us were in one room together, and although we did our best to get to bed and go to sleep, we all had the giggles so badly it didn't matter what anyone did, it was funny! One of the women had left little soaps as gifts for everyone, and as someone was reading the label, she discovered on the back it said, "Keep soap dry." She neglected to tell us that the full sentence was "Keep soap dry when not in use" but the concept of keeping our soaps dry was enough to launch another fit of giggles. Our hostess turned on a sound machine to try to lull us to sleep, but in scrolling through the 4 different sounds, it made us laugh even more. One sound was of the ocean, I think, with seagulls, but the seagull noises didn't really sound like seagulls, nor were they soothing. What was suppose to be seagulls sounded more like someone drowning, and each time a wave would crash, we heard a faint "help... help!" This sent us into a fit of laughter almost worse than anything else thus far. Each time we started to calm down and there was a moment of silence in the room, someone would quietly whisper, "help... help!" and the room would erupt once again. I finally managed to fall asleep with an aching gut, a huge smile on my face and a hundred funny stories running around my head.

When I finally got out of bed Sunday morning, the house was quiet. I showered and made my way down to the basement where the scrap room was. As I entered, someone made the comment to me, "Good morning! Looks like you showered. Did you keep your soap dry?" to which the room exploded with laughter. Sunday was slightly less boisterous than Saturday, but still lots of fun with added jokes and laughter. All in all, when I packed up around 4pm, I had caught up my 2010 digital Happiness Project book, scrapped two pages in my traditional album, and made between 10 and 20 cards. I also sat down with the Director of our group to discuss some of my goals and plan how CM can help get me there. We shared some ideas with one another and made a basic business model that I can use to help boost my business and keep my focus. But the best benefit was getting to know these ladies better, and hearing them say to me, "I'm so glad you came! I don't really know you and it was so much fun to hang out this weekend." Knowing that I truly fit into the group, and making my presence known by cracking my own jokes and creating a few laughs, gave me a huge sense of AHA. Acceptance means the world to me, and making others happy brings me endless happiness! I could not have had a better, AHA-filled weekend!