Day 553 Laughter Is Critical and Hey, Sometimes Life Is Funny!

Day 553

Laughter is Critical and Hey, Sometimes Life Is Funny!

This morning started like a normal workday. It was Sunday, but I was up by 5am, eating breakfast and getting ready to report to the studio. We received some snow yesterday and there was a chance that we might need to announce closings and cancellations. Lucky for us around here, it wasn’t as bad as the forecasters had predicted. I was home by 9:30am, and I found my way back to bed by 10am. I was up late Saturday night and we were headed to Stillwater later today, so I needed a nap!

After the seriousness of yesterday’s post, I thought I would clarify something. A great sense of humor is needed along the way. Laughter is critical in our lives! When I said that I would never “lighten up,” I simply meant---never compromise our mission. If something---anything threatens your resolve; you’ve got to beat it down in the most serious of ways. This is that important. But you can’t walk around all serious and frowning all the time. Smile! Look at what you’re doing for yourself!! Smiling and laughing, looking back and remembering once painful situations---softened and lightened up by time and distance, and never losing that ability to laugh.

This is serious business, but it’s life too. And sometimes life is funny.
Here’s an excerpt from Day 8. It was humiliating at the time it occurred, flat out embarrassing, but now---It’s hilarious to me:

One of the things I look forward to is being able to sit down anywhere I want without worrying about the stability of the chair underneath. I've mentioned before that my job has me sitting down most of the day, and over the years the stress has been just too much...on the chairs. I'm being completely honest with you when I say that I've broken or contributed to the destruction of at least six chairs in the several years I've been with Team Radio. I say “contributed to” because a couple actually broke when another employee (who was the lightest of everyone) sat in them. I was the first to say...”well, it's good to know that I'm not the only one that breaks chairs”...But I knew it was me that brought those chairs to the point of giving up.

There's nothing like the humiliation of sitting in a chair, feeling it give, and before you know it, you're on the floor in front of everyone. The company even paid a welder to come out and reinforce a couple of chairs. Oh, that's not embarrassing at all! I have to say that my current studio chair is the best I've ever had. The owner of Team Radio paid a bunch of money for it. It is rated to handle 500 pounds on a 24 hour a day schedule. It is a heavy duty chair! And it has a warranty guarantee...The deal is, if I break it, I have to be the one that takes it to the store for repairs. I think I could jump up and down on it and it would still hold. It's real nice. But it's not just the sturdiness of the chair that's important. It's the size. Chairs with narrow arms are horrible. I would really like to know the name of the company that manufactures those metal chairs with the extremely narrow armrest. You see them in many offices, along with me standing in the corner, because I know better than to even attempt to sit down. These chairs are a snug fit for normal size people! I have sat on the very edge of one before and boy is that uncomfortable!

One of the worst sitting challenges I will not miss: fixed booths at restaurants. If you're of normal size you may not realize what I'm talking about, but if you're heavy, then you know that nothing spoils a fun night out like a restaurant with un-fat-friendly seating. I've squeezed into many a booth, and the whole time worried about the possible internal injuries I was causing. I've also walked into a restaurant, surveyed the dining room, and walked right back out. Formica lined row-a-booths are fat people traps and they should be outlawed!! There, I feel much better now.

My worst chair story happened in the spring of 2003. I was living in Los Angeles at the time doing stand-up 100%. One day I ran across a part time on-air opening at Westwood One Radio Networks. A part-time job there would pay about or a little more than full time salaries anywhere else I had ever worked. So needless to say I was excited about winning over this network program director! I sent in my material and what do you know, he called me! He was seriously considering hiring me! Or he wouldn't have called right? I was thrilled. I would be on the air all over the nation! “This could be big”, I thought. The PD called me in for an interview the very next day. I drove to Valencia early to beat whatever traffic might get in the way, then after arriving an hour and a half early I took a long lunch at the Burger King down the road from Magic Mountain. When I finally arrived at Westwood One I was immediately given the grand tour of the facilities. Very nice. I mean, extremely nice studios. I was so impressed. The PD seemed very cool and I felt very comfortable, that is until I walked into his office for the interview. I noticed right away his guest chairs were not “fat friendly”. Extremely narrow arms and that wood and hot glued look. The PD took his chair behind his desk and told me to have a seat. I was afraid he was going to expect me to sit down! So I did...as lightly as I could on the very edge of the chair...and about point 2 seconds later the chair crumbled under my weight. I quickly caught myself from falling by grabbing his desk, but the chair wasn't so lucky. And neither were my chances of getting that job. After I broke one of his chairs, he invited me to sit in the other chair that WAS IDENTICAL to the one I just broke!!! I did, the same way as before, but this time with as much weight on my feet against the floor. Lucky for me the second chair somehow survived. My interview didn't. He never called me back. And I bet he tells that story to this day around the halls and studios of Westwood One Radio. Glad I could add some humor to their work place.

The biggest interview of my life and I completely destroy a chair at the start. Horrible then, but it makes me smile now. And if I think about it too much, I laugh out loud. Strange how that works.

One of my daily reads is a blog that has grown in popularity over the last 11 ½ months. Not only has Jack been amazingly successful at losing weight---he writes a must read weight loss blog on my list. I read Jack for a smile, for a laugh…and occasionally—he hits me with a serious post that is right on target. Even if I didn’t realize that I was the perfect target. I can’t imagine that you haven’t discovered his blog yet, but if not---here it is: www.jackfit.blogspot.com Thanks Jack for reminding me that it’s important to have fun and laugh along the way! They say that laughter can add years to your life. If that’s true, I may live to 120 after reading Jack’s blog. Thank you Jack!

My daughters and I traveled South to Stillwater late this afternoon to have dinner out with mom and then visit with grandma, Aunt Kelli, and mom back at grandmas house. Grandma is convinced that I should be done losing weight, she kept telling me---the same thing she tells me every time she sees me “don’t lose another pound!” It’s her way of saying “you look great!” Thank you again grandma—it makes me feel great every time you say it!

We dined at Taco Mayo tonight. I’ve written about this place many times. 163 calorie tacos. I had two loaded up with veggies. I probably should have had three, because I was short by 400 calories by the time I got back home. I used a little over three hundred on an omelet when I arrived back home.

My mom and Kelli are doing absolutely wonderful. They’re both exercising, both sticking to their calorie budgets, and they’re both losing weight successfully! Sounds great! I’m thrilled for them like you wouldn’t believe.

It wasn’t long before we had to see Amber drive away, back to school. They really should consider making Spring Break a two week event. I’d really enjoy that.

Thank you for reading. Goodnight and…

Good Choices,
Sean