I forgot my false mustache

Laugh lurker (noun): one who lurks whilst observing others laugh and sets out with a purpose of discovering quantities and origins of such laughter.

In my head I had envisioned myself wearing a totally inconspicuous fishing hat, those funny glasses with the false nose and mustache attached, and camouflage pants. I was going to casually hide in the bushes as if no one could see a giant green and brown bottomed person doing an army crawl through the shrubbery. I planned to mentally record the when/where/why of laughter in conversations of innocent passerby on which I just happened to eavesdrop. The plan was nothing short of flawless.

 

Then came the realization that I owned neither a fishing hat nor camouflaged-patterned pants. And I had misplaced my false mustache.

So, I was forced to settle with Plan B, albeit its anticlimactic nature compared with Plan Mustache. Plan B was as follows: 
A) Participate in conversations.
B) Do nothing unusual.
C) Pretend to not be mentally taking note of every time someone laughs.

Success came at last! As I was pretending to be normal, I observed that in casual conversation, most laughter does not stem from truly "humorous" situations or contexts. Most of the laughter was rooted in pure friendliness. Without laughter, conversation seemed dull, uninteresting, and unfriendly. Laughter adds cheer and makes light of the darker sides of life, and it doesn't have to be a result of something considered humorous.

A lot of people laughed in response to feeling slightly awkward or uncomfortable, too. I know that I personally do this, especially when meeting someone for the first time. To me, this fits in with the Relief Theory of humor. Many of us let out nervous or pent-up energy through laughter, because subconsciously we know that laughter releases endorphins and makes us feel better. We aren't laughing due to experiencing something humorous, therefore. We laugh, essentially, to release emotions and keeps ourselves from exploding.

In daily conversation, most laughter represents friendliness and release of excess energy. We like to laugh, but we also like sharing our laughter, so we do it with others around and in response to things that are not necessarily hilarious. Someone wrote once that happiness is only real when shared, and I believe that is what humans do every day of their lives: find someone with which to share their happiness. This happiness is represented with laughter.

At least we're both rooting for Team Food

If I may, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this: Einstein's bagel/coffee combo is unbeatable and one of the best ways to start your day. So, what better place to meet with your conversation partner than the place with the freshly toasted and buttered bagels and vanilla hazelnut coffee (if you get there within two minutes after they put out a new batch before it's all gone)? Jeff and I met here instead of our usual Union Grounds rendezvous point on Saturday, and it was glorious.

I like meeting with Jeff, because our interactions are not awkward at all. We talk easily, and we are becoming more comfortable having casual conversations with each other. I look forward to speaking with him to see how his week is going; it provides a nice break from the hectic rush of classes and homework and tests.

Incidentally, Jeff told me that this past week he was present when one of his friends had his meeting with his conversation partner. He also explained to me how awkward it was, and that Jeff was actually trying to keep the conversation going! I think both of us are relieved that our conversations are not forced, although I do believe the awkwardness or lack thereof has everything to do with the participants' attitudes. Neither Jeff or I mind having these thirty minute conversations every week. Jeff especially is a really good sport about it, since he is supposed to be the one "learning" English (although his English is awesome!). So, it definitely makes a difference that both of us want to be there. Plus, meeting new people is always fun!

In addition to high-fiving ourselves about our lack of awkwardness, our conversation also centered largely around the topic of food. We both love food (I have sympathy for anyone who doesn't feel the same way) and probably could discuss it for hours. Jeff told me that his family teases him for not being as big a fan of seafood as the normal Taiwanese person, and I told him my family teases me for wanting to eat it all the time (especially sushi). We're pretty good at tag-teaming conversation. 

Since we share a love of good food, hopefully next week we will meet somewhere as delicious as Einstein's. One can only hope.

The gum effect

This weekend, I was fortunate to hear one of the funniest stories in the history of funny stories. I laughed so hard when I heard it that I turned into a giggling limp noodle and almost fell out of my chair. In a way, it is a type of schadenfreude story, so there was a small part of me that felt guilty for laughing the way I did. As you will see, though, this story belongs straight out of a movie. This is a story as told to me by my friend (in the interest of anonymity, let’s call him Tom). So here goes.

The Delts threw a highlighter bus party last Friday night. It was a huge shindig, complete with glow sticks and black lights and loud music and dancing. Tom, a Delt, was having a great time, dancing and fist-pumping like a frat star. All of a sudden, a girl catches his eye. She is beautiful and perfect, and he is instantly attracted to her. He asks her to dance. She says yes. Things are going swell as they are dancing in the midst of the fist-pumping crowd. Tom is ecstatic to have found this wonderful girl. And she is a great dancer. What could go wrong?

There they were, dancing the night away, when the girl brushes her hair to the side of her neck. Tom seizes this opportunity. Carpe diem! Matching the raunchiness of the rest of the dancing couples, Tom goes to kiss the girl’s neck. There are only two problems with this scenario: not all the girl’s hair has been pushed to the side, and Tom is chewing gum.

Gum, which, as he opened his mouth, became irreversibly stuck in this pretty girl’s hair.

At first, Tom tries not to panic. He can just pull the gum out, and she will never know. When that doesn’t work, Tom begins to panic. The gum is stuck. It isn’t coming out. He doesn’t know what to do, and he doesn’t want to tell the beautiful girl what has happened. He has only just met her, and there would be no recovery from a gum-in-hair incident.
The girl keeps dancing while Tom is panicking. Eventually, the girl tells him that she is going to go to the restroom but will be right back. “Don’t go anywhere,” she says. Tom knows that she will realize soon enough what has happened. Tom is super bummed, because he likes her. But Tom, knowing a recovery is not possible, slinks away into the darkness of the black lights and glow sticks and loud music and never sees the pretty girl again.

The end.

Author’s notes: I feel bad for my friend, but I couldn’t help laughing at this situation. It is something that belongs in a comedy film. I hope you enjoyed it hopefully as much as I did but definitely more than Tom did.

Just saying

One of the reasons I love spring break so much is that everyone returns with at least one slightly crazy and questionable story. Some people may return with many of these, but a successful break needs only one. In my meeting with Jeff today, we swapped our own spring break stories. Though both of us stayed in the area, we did have at least one good story each.

Jeff's stories involved his new apartment. Last week, he moved into a new place about ten minutes away from campus. His transition has been a continuous process ever since then. He has everything he needs in his new apartment... that is, everything except eating utensils! He may be able to cook food, but he cannot eat it. Thus lies the quite torturous paradox. He definitely needs to invest in some forks and knives and plates and cups. They are a pretty essential aspect of the kitchen in my opinion. Or he could just bake cookies, seeing as they need no forks. And they are delicious. Just saying.

My story centered around the fact that I was in a suite in the American Airlines Center for the Muse concert last Wednesday. I had no idea that I would be in a suite; my best friend's dad is a talent buyer, and he got us the tickets for free. It was such a random and fun experience. Free food and drinks all night? Check! Of course, many pictures were taken, and I will have those memories forever.

Alright, so our stories may not be particularly crazy or even the typical college spring break stories. But we still had good times and good memories made.

Jeff and I also talked for a while about food today. Food is great. Food is amazing. And Jeff agrees. We both cook for ourselves, so it was cool to talk about that. Jeff also told me that sometime throughout my lifetime I need to travel to Taiwan and try their cake. American cake is so sugary, but in Taiwan, it is that Goldilocks mixture: just the right amount. I would absolutely love to try that cake, because cake is one of the greatest joys in life. Just saying.

For some reason I keep coming back to food today. Am I hungry? Yes. Yes I am definitely hungry. I do believe it is lunch time.

I really like these talks with Jeff. We keep finding more in common, which is really cool.
Until next week! Peace.

Ps yummmmmm lunch.

The innocence in laughter

My spring break was planned a long time in advance. Carefully thought out, anxiously anticipated. Unfortunately, it wasn't a glamorous trip to the beach or even a trip to grandma's. My fabulous spring break would consist of catching up on all my MCAT studying.

It wouldn't be so bad, I told myself. I'll get caught up on my work, and then I'll feel much less stressed! Being the type A that I am, I even came up with a study schedule for each day. Needless to say, people who have ambition to study over spring break hardly ever get everything done that they intend to. Thus, by the end of the week, I was overwhelmed, stressed, and giving up hope. So much for my carefully constructed study schedule.

I did have one fun activity planned, though. Two months prior, I had purchased my sister and myself tickets to see one of our favorite musicians, Andrew McMahon, in concert on the final Saturday of break. The event was highly anticipated by both of us, and Saturday seemed to come at a snail pace. When we finally arrived at the concert hall in Dallas, we were bursting with restless energy and excitement.

Often, when we build something up in our heads, we end up feeling disappointment. Our expectations are too high to reach, and we fall short of the happiness we deem appropriate. This concert, however, turned out to be everything I wanted and more. It was, in full honesty, the best music experience I have ever had. If I could choose five moments in which to live over and over for the rest of my life, this one would be in the rotation, hands down.

I chose this moment to share, because I feel that it exemplifies the presence of innocent laughter. In class, we have discussed both sides of the argument that laughter is menacing, that it is evil at its roots, that it leads to arrogance, that we laugh at the pain of others. To all those who say laughter is evil, I say this: go see your favorite artist perform live. It doesn't matter which form of art you prefer;  when you see and feel the passion of these artists, you will smile and you will laugh and you will feel a happiness not connected with your own sense of worth. You are happy purely because you feel the passion and the joy the artist feels. You do not laugh to mock, and you do not laugh to feel superior. You laugh because you feel honestly and innocently happy. And you are humbled at the artist's abilities to make you feel this way.

The laughter that arises is not connected necessarily with humor, but it is laughter all the same, and it is innocent. That, in essence, is my argument to all who claim that there is ill feeling in laughter.