Deep Thoughts

Last week I was in a bad mood and feeling sorry for myself.  I was supposed to go to my friend’s bachelorette party, but my son had a State Cup BMX race so he and my husband wouldn’t be home to watch the twins.  And everyone else I knew capable of and willing to watch two 18-month-olds were unavailable:

• my parents–in Hawaii
• my parents-in-law–in Canada
• my best friend–in Alaska
• my sister-in-law–taking her boys to two different baseball tournaments at the same time
• my niece–marching in a parade with her cheer team

So it looked like I was going to be spending Saturday evening at home instead of out with my friends, again.

I tried to not let it get to me. You haven’t seen these friends in months, anyways, I told myself.  So what if you miss another dinner with them? You can go next time.  They understand. But it wasn’t working.  I was cranky.

I’m a normally happy person. But Thursday night, after the kids went to bed, I was anything but happy.

“Hey, you okay?” My husband asked.

“No! What I want you to say is, ‘You know, you work really hard and hardly get any time to yourself.  You never get to go out with your friends.  You deserve to go wine tasting, sit in a hot tub, and go to dinner with your friends.  The weather is going to be bad at the race this weekend anyways.  We’ll skip it so you can go to the party.’  But you won’t, and I’m bummed out about it.”

My husband looked at me for a moment.  “You’re right, you do deserve to go.  Do you really want us to skip the race so you can go?”

“Yes! No!  I don’t know. I already told them I can’t come anyways.”  I dragged the basket of laundry to the couch and began furiously folding clothes.

“You know what you need?  Some Deep Thoughts!”

I love Deep Thoughts.  Not many people enjoy them as much as I do.  But I was determined to resist my husband’s plot to cheer me up and continue to revel in my self-pity.  I continued to take my emotions out on the laundry as my husband opened The Lost Deep Thoughts: Don’t Fight the Deepness by Jack Handy and began to read:

If you lose your job, your marriage and your mind all in one week, try to lose your mind first, because then the other stuff won’t matter that much.

My mouth involuntarily broke into a smile and laughter came pouring out, cracking the shell of the foul mood that had encapsulated me all evening.  What is it about Deep Thoughts that gets me every time?  With each one my husband read, I felt a little lighter and a little happier, a little more like my normal self.

Probably the saddest thing you’ll every see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy.  Forget it, little friend.

Now that is sad! Yes, being a parent is hard.  Having twins makes it harder.  But the truth is that I’m very blessed.  Thank you, dear husband, for giving me back my rose-colored glasses when I drop them.