Laughter

I love to laugh, especially the kind of laughter where you can't stop and tears may run down your face. Sometimes a movie can evoke do this. I remember going to see Ruthless People with a friend and at a certain point of the movie, the entire audience burst out laughing. Fun! A different movie, Steel Magnolias, was a very sad movie. And I wouldn't have believed that the writers could have scripted a cemetery scene that could cause outright laughter. But it did!
And then there is the laughter when something in real life occurs and everyone begins to laugh and you say to the person, "We're not laughing AT you, we're laughing WITH you...you just haven't started yet! Especially true when it is you yourself that causes the mirth and merriment. Things are often funnier in hindsight, as evidenced by the statement, "Someday, you will look back at this and laugh!"
So, here's one of those stories, from real life...my life...and quite embarrassing at the time!

There was an afterschool faculty meeting where the staff was being instructed in how to be more effective at 'test writing'. It was held in the school library which was the last room in the main hallway. Then, you had to turn left, where there was a choice of two wings- grades 4-5 in one wing and 6th grade in the other.
The timing would work out perfectly for me, as I was to pick my mother up at the airport at about 5:30 PM. That is...in theory. My mom[Flo] had a history of crummy air port experiences involving cancelled flights, delays, having to literally run to a gate because of a flight change, etc. She had been known to voice her, "You know...I'm too old for this sh**!"
So, after the kids had been dismissed, and as I am walking to the meeting, there was an announcement that I was to report to the office because I had a phone call. It was my brother relating the latest saga of all that had gone wrong with Flo's flight[again!!], and the new info so that I could revise the 'airport run'. This conversation, while absolutely unavoidable and necessary, took about 5-10 minutes and I'm supposed to be in a meeting in the library...with everyone else in the building. So, as I left the office, I began to run down the hallway to enter the last room on the right which, by the way, was half- glass from about waist high upward to the ceiling. And as if watching myself in slow motion, the top half of my body got running faster than the bottom half of my body and I sailed right past the library door on my knees!! As I sailed quickly toward that concrete wall[ a definite stopping point],I could hear heads turning and gasps of,"Oh my God!".
"What's ?...Who?...Are you alright?"
Imagine ,for a moment, how I probably felt. Sail by that library door on your knees in front of the entire faculty and a guest speaker!!
The only good thing about it was that it happened so fast that some people were totally unaware before it was already over and thus didn't get to see the visual image!!
Well, is it funny in hindsight?...Have I looked back upon it and laughed at it?
Oh yes! Of course! If you can't laugh at yourself, then you've got your knickers in too tight a knot!!
Ever happen to you?