Have you ever felt...

like the people you are with don't really 'get' you? I was at a dinner with the other coach's that I work with and this is the third year I have worked with these women. Each year gets more comfortable and we all get in some sort of a groove working side by side, however I have known from day one that I don't have a ton in common with these other women. We don't like the same t.v. shows, we don't spend our time talking about similar things, I am sure we don't listen to the same kind of music, and overall these things hinder the level of conversations we can really have. The past few days I have noticed that sometimes when I am in this particular group I tend to laugh at things that I normally would not laugh at. Also, I will come home with stories to tell my husband about something funny that happened at practice, but as soon as I repeat the story at home, I quickly realize that it was not that funny at all. Does anyone else do this? It's like because of your environment your sense of humor gets temporarily warped. So then I have to end the story with not only 'you shoulda been there...' but a 'guess it was funnier at work' or even a 'the sunshine made me feel dizzy and it made things even more funny at the time'...
Cut to dinner tonight, one of the coaches makes a little sarcastic remark to another nothing statement and the whole table erupts in laughter. Right after that, one coach proclaims to the other 'you are now my funniest friend.... it's so nice to have a friend that is funny too, because i have to be the funny one all the time and now i finally have someone who can be funny!'

Let this sink in for a minute...

Now, I don't think this was a kick to my ego AT ALL. But I will admit that I have spent the last 15 years or so trying to make people laugh and have been pretty successful at it. I know there are plenty of people funnier then me, but I will give myself credit when it is due. I am not great at math, I will do anything but file my own taxes, I like cleaning but HATE dusting, I immediately throw away almost all directions to anything because I won't take the time to read them, I am a semi-germaphobe, I am awful with geography but I continue to try to get better at it..... all of these things are tiny pieces of me, but the point is I do some things well and other things I need to work on. Comedy, is not one of them. I can make people laugh. And when I was surrounded with things that I found un-funny but next to people that couldn't stop laughing, I just... I was .... appalled. Not to sound too dramatic, but I was. I almost felt like it was a competition that I never signed up for. Yet I was ready to compete.

(Next, the funky bass sounds from Seinfeld play as this rapidly turns into the next episode)