When you’re taking things too seriously, and life retaliates like it’s playing a grand practical joke on you, don’t get mad; laugh.

I started taking my rehabilitation way too seriously until I got suspended.

Yep. All of it! My bionic boob fills, the second surgery, my PT are all on hold. I need to see another doctor (I have so many doctors now in my drop-down portal). I don’t remember what they all do) to explain the nerve pain in my left arm.

I’m sure the same sort of thing’s happened to you.

You feel like life’s under control. You’re on your path, and nothing’s going to stop you from winning. You get the news that changes everything. Thrown off course, you realize everything’s on hold while everyone else gets to keep going.

Dazed, you get up, dust yourself off, and start again. And then, bam! Back in the ditches. Seriously?

So frustrating.
So upsetting.
So ridiculous.

And then you get angry. After all that you’ve been through. How unfair!

Do you know anger fuels comedy? At least that’s what Robert McKee says. And he’s the screenwriting expert, so I defer to him when it comes to writing comedy.

I did that when I couldn’t sleep the other night. Instead of laying in bed stewing, I got up and wrote the funniest two bloopers of my life. No matter how many times we tell these stories, I can’t help but laugh until the tears come. Good luck even figuring out if I’m laughing or crying.

So here it is–the stupidest thing I ever did while relaxing in my shower/bath in Spain that had me belly laughing at 1 am the other night.

But the setup, first. It was a shabby hotel as tired-looking as we were. All night we heard party-goers on the sidewalks below. They may as well have been in our room. The girls and Alex were in conjoined bedrooms with the door between the rooms open. He must have been reading while they slept.

I retreated to the tub, as small as it was. Maybe I could find peace and relaxation there. So I sat in the tub, closed my eyes, and enjoyed the water drumming down on me.

Only to be interrupted by Alex screaming, “You’ve flooded the whole room. Get out! Hurry up!”

A flood? Yeah, right! Though I’d never seen Alex so hysterical before.

I peered over the ledge and saw about 4 inches of water. I grabbed a towel and sloshed through the water. It ran from wall to wall.

Alex hadn’t been dramatic enough!

Completely naked, I threw the towel on the floor and watched it get lost in the water.

“Oh my God,” My hysteria radar had hit a ten. “What do we do? I’ll get more towels.”

Alex yelled, “That’s not going to do anything. Get the bedding.”

The girls were still in the beds, no longer sleeping, while Alex and I stripped the bedding from around them and threw them on the floor.

“Get the pillows, too.” He said.

“No! Not the pillows,” I cried. “Do you know how hard it will be to get the water out of them? We’ve already ruined the wool blankets.”

“That’s their problem, not ours! We’ve got to get this water up now.”

The situation couldn’t get any worse.

But he’d already thrown the pillows on the floor. So we didn’t notice Alexandra get up, slip and fall.

As she cried, Alex yelled at her, “Get back in bed.”

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she continued to cry.

She had just woken up after all. Imagine what it must have been like: your hurt, your dad yelling at you, and your mom scrubbing the floor naked.

Older and more practical, Skylar said she’d be careful and sloshed towards the other bedroom. She yelled, “Now it’s coming in here. Hurry. It’s going to get the iPads.”

Alex ran to save the equipment while Skylar walked further into the other room and documented the escalating water crisis–it had seeped under the door into the hallway. It was heading toward the other rooms.

Ah! What a laugh! But I don’t leave my blooper in Spain. Oh no! There was Costa Rica.

My friend loves to remind me of the second stupidest thing I ever did.

We were white water rafting even though my friend couldn’t swim. The group convinced her that it wouldn’t be a problem; she’d be wearing a life jacket.

Once she got into the idea of going, she talked me into it. I can swim, that wasn’t my problem, I couldn’t think of what that might be, but I didn’t want to live and find out.

So, of course, we went, and she fell out of the raft. She screamed, “Stephanie! Help! Do something!”

Maybe she wanted to take a little swim. I didn’t know. What could I do to help? It wasn’t a time for I told you so, but remember how I didn’t want to go, and she talked me into it?

So I did what anyone would do when their friend was up a creek without a paddle. I threw her my oar.

Yeah, you heard me right. I know better than to explain myself out of this one. Plus, we’ve both gotten a lot of mileage out of that story.

All’s good again when you can have a great belly laugh or two.

No need to take life seriously. Plan for the future, yes, work towards your goal, absolutely, but have a hard-core laugh when you get suspended.

Heck, pull out your own life’s bloopers when you get angry enough at life’s practical jokes, and make sure you have a grand-ol’ belly laugh.