Plain Old-Fashioned Silly Fun

Well, my friends, yesterday got away from me. I was planning on writing this week's blog but got sidelined time and time again with plain old-fashioned silly fun. Yep, the kind that makes you belly laugh out loud with all your heart and soul. The kind that reminds you of how the most wonderful moments in life are the ones that surprise you with their spontaneity. The kind that you will remember for years to come.

I'm not saying that writing this blog isn't fun but it takes time and uninterrupted focus none of which I ended up having yesterday though try as I might to get some work done. Here's how the crazy day unfolded...

I began by spending the morning at the eye doctor. Just an annual exam to let me know how much my eyes are continuing to deteriorate (so lovely to be able to pay for that!). After gettting the also lovely news that if I wanted progressive lenses it would cost me almost $500.00...and that would be with me using frames that I already have (!) I left feeling slightly overwhelmed and dare I say slightly angry...end result...no progressive lenses for the moment. I headed home.

As I'm pulling up to my house, what do you imagine I see? My niece, Casey(who was babysitting), and my son, Joshua, on the grass in front of the house sitting behind an elaborately decorated table with a sign that said, ROCK N ROLL LEMONADE & COOKIES $2. They were laughing and literally screaming at passersby to buy their lemonade and cookies, me included, which I promptly did. I could not stop smiling as I examined their set-up. The best part was how really thrilled they were with themselves and the whole operation. By the time I had arrived they already had several dollars in their money jar and were counting on much more to come their way.

I went into the house to try to get some phone calls and emails returned only to be persuaded to come back out to help sell their wares and participate in some photo ops. As you can see from the photo above silly fun was the operative word here. After a while I went into the house to change into my workout clothes. I then left Casey and Joshua to their work and went on my walk. By the time I came home several neighborhood kids had joined in the fun and many more dollars were in their jar. Lots more laughing and screaming.

Again, I tried to go inside the house to get some work done but to no avail. At 2pm Joshua's friend, Sean, showed up for a playdate, and a new round of insanity ensued. They set up Joshua's tent in the backyard, got out all his nerf guns and bullets, put on appropriate battle gear and began protecting the Westside of Los Angeles from all the suspected and dangerous terrorists lurking in the bushes. Casey and I both got pulled into the game, cajoling, taunting and teasing them...this went on forever!

Finally, at 5pm the four of us went to Poquito Mas around the corner for an early dinner. I can't remember what exactly we said but we did not stop laughing the entire time...gafaw, crazy laughter that made people look at us with vaguely judgmental stares. I have to say that even though we tried to tone it down from time to time we really were just  having too good of a time to care. Of course, we had to follow up dinner with a frozen yogurt at Big Chill...more laughing, more staring from others.

When we got back home I tried once again to get some work done. I knew the blog was out of the question but I tried to rein Casey in to edit some of my writing for the new version of the SUGAR & STILETTOS play. This lasted about a nanosecond because Joshua and Sean were now back in full battle mode, round 2. Casey decided that I needed to be a princess held hostage by her so I donned my tiara, she wrote a ransom note, and I screamed HELP! while she made menacing threats on my life. There was running around from the front yard to the backyard and back again. Another note was written in pink ink; this time by me begging for HELP! I was really getting caught up in the emotions of my kidnapping. In between Casey's taunts to the young, brave soldiers we were dropping to our knees just cracking up at the silliness of it all.

By the time my friend, Eleanor, came at 9pm to pick up her son, Sean, everyone was totally sweaty and faces were red with exhaustion. The only one who seemed to have missed all the action was our cat, Tucker, who preferred to pose for pictures in a luxuriously seductive and shy way as opposed to getting involved with all the riff raff.

After saying good-bye to everyone I got Joshua into the bath, then bed where he willingly collapsed. By 1030pm I was in bed too. As I began the descent into blissful sleep I thought what an amazing day it turned out to be...not at all the one that I had envisioned but one that I will never forget.

There really is something to be said for plain old-fashioned silly fun...I highly recommend it...you should definitely try it sometime soon!

xo Nanci

P.S. Casey and Joshua ended up with $38.00 from their sales...$22.00 covered costs and $16.00 was pure profit...pretty impressive indeed.
P.S.S. All photography for this post courtesy of the extremely talented Casey Neidorf!