Laugh out Loud

Since the internet generation has reached it's peak. The term "lol" has become quite common place. I consider laughing out loud in the lol since to mean when someone sincerely sits and reads something that is so funny that that person can't help but smile widely and laugh to themselves. Or that a situation is so funny that a person cannot control their laughter even when it is socially unacceptable to laugh. It is a truly beautiful moment when this happens. I've decided to stop using the term unless I genuinely "lol" when I read something. This post is dedicated to moments of "loling" but maybe not so much in the technological root of the phrase. In the last two weeks, and in general, as I'm spending time with people who I feel at ease with and trying to not let my work/ the sadness of my work absorb my life, there have been many hilarious and laughter filled moments. Since I've had a really long, hard two weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to instead focus on some joy. This particular incident happened a little over a week ago, but it is worthy of documentation.

February 12, 2011
Today is a very interesting day and it didn't even include any "social work". Today I went to look at apartments and houses with my two lovely roommates Erin and Shelden. We learned a lot about the housing market and Erin and I gave Shelden a lesson on following your "warm and fuzzy" feeling when looking for an apartment. This is of course a very critical part of the housing decision and we would be happy to give anyone interested a lesson, free of charge. :)

So the interesting part of the experience occurred when we showed up at one of the houses we had found. We were supposed to be meeting one of the realator representatives at the residence and were informed that it was still being occupied. I decided to park on the grass and then we all decided this was very rude. I tried to finagle around and park on the street culdesac. The process of doing this included me leaving tire marks in their yard, almost hitting the mailbox, and stalling out twice. The landlord was watching all of this and needless to say I was bright red and we were all hysterical with laughter upon exiting the car. We calmed down a little as we walked up the drive to the house, but our laughter quickly resumed when we began to take in the scenery of the residence we were about to view :) .

Just imagine a typical college male housing unit multiplied x 1,000. The dishes in the sink had obviously been there for at least a month, I don't think the carpet had been vacuumed in over a year, there were beer bottles and various other debris everywhere. Even as a social worker who sees some pretty dirty houses, I was a little shocked. In addition to the filth, there were the very tasteful decorations. There was the naked budwiser girl, the rebel flag, the beer bottle collections, the antlers, the piles of dirty laundry.... Shelden, Erin, and I could not control our girlish giggles and laughed throughout the entire "showing" of the house. The funniest thing about all of this is that an actual agent from the reality company was showing us the house. His non-chalant attitude was very impressive. He managed to stifle his laughter and still somewhat attempt to "sell" us the property. We of course all were trying very hard to still ask questions and feign interest. I asked what they would do if we decided to rent once the tenents moved out. He stated that they would clean and maybe even replace the carpet and deep clean the entire place. After leaving we of course "loled" again over the fact that he said "maybe" replace the carpet. We then seriously, ok not so seriously, asked the Realtor if they could throw in some of the decorations for free. He somehow managed to keep a straight face and say "that could probably be arranged" with only a slight indication of humor.

Needless to say we did not decide to rent this house, but we did get some great stories and decorating tips from the experience. In addition, I think I lost five pounds from the workout I got from the laughter. We have now signed a lease for another apartment with the same company and have ironically gotten the same Realator for all of our properties we've seen through this company. We all are very glad that we can continue to work with a company that we have bonded with one of the employees, even if he doesn't share our affinity for him, we will always link him to this experience and he will always make us laugh.

On a closing note, If you're looking for an upstanding, respectable young man with very good taste, then we have an address of a house that has young men who have impeccable decorating skills and straight (as evidenced by the naked women posters). ;)

Keep on the sunny side.. it is the only way to survive.