The Humor Journal

Have you ever found yourself feeling rather up tight and discovered you were taking yourself and life way too seriously? This can happen and it is not good for you or the people around you. Often it happens when we have lots of responsibilities and other people treat us accordingly. It can also happen when we are working for someone else, doing volunteer work, or taking care of our home and family. Years ago I was in a personal effectiveness class where the leader took great joy in pointing out that it is just a matter of time before we do our next "NERDLY" act. When we keep this in mind, it is easier to take ourselves lightly and the people around will be happier, too.

In this class it was suggested that we might want to keep a journal of at least some of the "nerdly" acts we do so we don't forget them and can review them from time to time. My first one happened one Saturday morning on my way to Costco. I stopped at the bank first and when I got to Costco, I turned off the car and reached for my purse on the seat. My hand grabbed somethng, but it was not my purse. It was hard and round and when I looked at it I saw the words Puget Sound National Bank on the side. Yes I had driven to Costso with the money tube from the drive up window. I was mortified and for a few minutes I contemplated taking it home and pretending this had never happened. Then I realized "they" knew who came through there last, so I turned around and drove back to the bank. They were still laughing as they stood in the window waiting for me to return. It made their day and I must admit it wasn't long before I was thinking, "This will be a great story". Obviously it wasn't my first "nerdly act"!

I'll give you just one more. When my speaking business was first starting, my husband who worked at Boeing, suggested while I was waiting I might want to think of getting a job. He said they were looking for people at Boeing and one of my friends said I could probably get a training position. Next he brought me an application. I filled it out and soon got a call to come in for a typing test and a drug test. I told the woman in charge I was not looking for a typing position and she assured me everyone has to pass this before being hired. I had been typing since high school and now spent a lot of time on a word processor, so I figured that would work. I had not stopped to think how many years it had been since I had flung a carriage return when I heard a bell. I sat down and found the typewriters were IBM Selectra and I immediately thought "I didn't think they still made these". The woman next to me said she was a contract employee at the company already and had never seen one in any of their offices.

The woman giving the test said we needed to type 40 words a minute and any typo would take 5 words away. When she said go, we all started. I felt things were going ok until I looked at the page and saw I had gone way off to the right. How did that happen? Then I realized I had not even heard the bell for the carriage return. So I tried to correct the mistakes. It took 3 or 4 steps for each letter. I was in trouble. Then the woman said with a smile, don't worry if you made some mistakes, we'll do it one more time and we'll take the best of the two. By then I was really flustered and took one more detour off of the paper. The woman in charge said, don't worry, you can come in again but now we will do the drug test. I took my little bottle into the rest room and soon was on my way down the freeway heading home. The phone rang and it was my husband. He said, "How did it go?", and I answered saying, "Not bad. I think one out of two is pretty good, and I knew I was drug free!"

He did not laugh, but I did. You see as I thought more about it, I realized I know what I am really good at and it does not take being a wiz bang typist. Now I keep a picture in my heart file of Golda Meir and across the bottom of the picture it says....BUT CAN SHE TYPE? That spoke to me. We each have something special to do that makes our heart sing. It usually means living our purpose and that is another page on this website. Look for it!

WHAT WILL BE YOUR FIRST ENTRY IN YOUR HUMOR JOURNAL?