Unfortunately, I tend to look really sad when I’m laughing. If someone makes me laugh even a little, my eyes start to water and I always look distraught because I’m trying to wipe away the tears of joy without getting mascara everywhere.
This usually prompts the question of if I’m okay and a very grave expression by the person who made me laugh, but really it just makes me laugh harder. It’s weird.
There was a perfect example of this a few weeks ago, as a handful of other Torchies and I celebrated one of our copy editors’ birthdays. We were all having a good time, and at one point during the night, our news editor’s adopted cat climbed up in my chair and laid down sprawled across my lap—pretty much giving me a hug with one paw—to take a nap.
Naturally, someone said something I found funny, and there was a domino effect from there. We have quite a witty staff if I do say so myself. Before I knew it, I had tears streaming down my face as I laughed so hard I could feel it giving me an ab workout.
It wasn’t even that funny, and I’m pretty sure I made everyone feel a bit awkward that I was sitting there practically weeping from the funny remarks and from the joy of being hugged by a cat named Josh.
Another example that’s even more extreme than the first happened when I was having a conversation with my older brother over a late night snack a few years ago. To be honest, I can’t even remember what he said that made me quite literally ROFLMAO, but I can tell you this: they must have been the most humorous words I’d heard in my entire life, because I burst into a plethora of laughter-induced tears, and he into panic.
“Why are you crying?” He asked me in distress, after he’d finished laughing.
“I don’t know!” I wailed, and proceeded to laugh and cry even harder, which is pretty much my main response when asked.
I’m pretty sure it took me about 10 minutes of rolling on the floor to calm down.
Moral of the story: if I’m ever talking to you and something you said makes me laugh and bawl my eyeballs out at the same time, take it as a compliment and give me a tissue. A cat to hug wouldn’t hurt either.