Humor helps in dealing with stresses
Funny how certain things in life we simply don’t seem to hear, isn’t it? I used to live on a fairly busy highway. Even though people suggested to me before I moved-in that the sound of the traffic would be noisy or busy or a bother, I didn’t care. I liked the house and actually enjoyed the moving traffic passing by. Yet, if I hear a chain saw or anything that sounds like it or a human voice–it’s a totally different story. It just is. I’d rather hear a pack of dogs bark all night long that this loud Indian couple bantering and fussing for hours on end! No really—they talk and talk and talk and then talk some more, non-stop hour after hour and on and on. How about reading a book or SOMETHING? Anything! (My current working theory is that it was a forced marriage and they are still hashing out whose fault it is–its just that the mind really wonders what they could go on about for so long and with such ….. well, lets leave it at that.)
I’m employing all types of tools and methods to deal with the stresses of certain sounds and noises these days. Take for instance the other night. Humor works and sometimes I can “crack myself up” as the saying goes!
The downstairs neighbors (a loud mouthed couple from India–pardon how I said that but it’s true) were getting louder as I was about to get into bed. Great! Here we go again! My tried-and-true method to muffle into silence their Mumbai-mumbling-mouths involves turning up the fan on the central air unit, then putting the floor fan on high, AND the air purifier too for the benefit of THAT white noise as well. All that, as sometimes happens, didn’t do it! I could still hear their very loud voices. The task of drowning out the sound of their mouths completely was going to require the calling forth of the duty of the dishwasher!
Once it’s all going at the same time, the place is really rocking with white noise. In fact, so much so that my apartment sounds like a jet engine! Rolling off on that thought, as I kicked off my slippers, turned back the covers on my bed, switched off the light announcing, “Ladies and gentleman this is your captain speaking, welcome to cosmic airlines, we’ve been cleared for take off, please fasten your seat belts, and enjoy your flight…” I felt asleep laughing. Humor helps dealing with stress.
(So does the fact that their VISA will run out soon and they will have to go back to India! Hasta la vista baby! Can’t happen too soon for me! Meanwhile… humor!) I know it’s NASCAR country here too and that Jimmy Johnson just won the Daytona 500, but I’ve developed a huge dis-taste for Lowe’s (employer of the Indians in this town). I am personally boycotting Lowe’s as a way to make myself feel better about the noise, not that I really ever shopped there anyway…but still. Opps… suddenly seem to have lost my sense of humor again! LOL Change! Grrrrrrrrr!! Or as my Buddhist friend has said, “Om Dammit OM!” (This blog is another tool in dealing with my stress as well. And yeah, yeah, I know it’s all illusion or mental projection or just life as it is in the big city. Still, I also know that a girl’s gotta’ do what a girl’s gotta’ do!)
PS — if some big exec at Lowe’s Headquarters reads my blog and wants to buy me out of my lease, you can contact me through my website. What are the chances? ha ha
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