Outrageous Laughter

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors reinvent themselves in this new stage of their lives called retirement. Her blog, public lecture, and new self-help book on senior reinvention are titled: Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire. Her memoir is: Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class. Books descriptions follow her blog below. Both books are available at Amazon.com by clicking here and here. Her website is: LeeGaleGruen.com

Now, on to my blog:

Last month, I took a wonderful car trip with my son. We traveled the northern coast of California in all its fury. It was great just to hang out together and share the experience.

In one small town, we stopped at a Dollar Store. The only thing I found was a $1.25 pair of fleece gloves. (Why the Dollar Store charges $1.25 for an item is a matter for another blog entirely.)

We proceeded to the automated cashier. My son took the gloves out of the shopping cart and scanned them. Nothing happened, so he scanned them a second time. Suddenly, the machine came to life, and the bill was for two pairs of gloves per the double scan. He tried to cancel the transaction but to no avail.

A store clerk appeared out of nowhere, punched in a code, the machine chortled a few times, and we were back to the new purchase screen. My son scanned the gloves, navigated his way to the checkout screen, and the machine informed us that the total purchase with tax would be $1.36.

I put my credit card in the appropriate slot and was ordered by the screen to wait for processing. We waited and waited and waited and waited. The aforementioned clerk happened to be walking by, and we hailed him over for the second time. Again, he typed in some special numbers, and we were thrust back to page one. Once more my son scanned the gloves. Again he made his way to the payment page for the $1.36 transaction.

I offered my credit card, but my son said, “No, we don’t want to play that game again. I’ll just pay cash. That’ll be faster.” He inserted a dollar into the appropriate place and then dropped a quarter into the change slot. The machine wouldn’t accept the quarter and kept spitting it into the little container below each time it was fed the coin anew.

For the third time, we hailed our clerk. Magic numbers flew, the dollar was returned (not the quarter) and we were back to page one again whereupon the clerk left.

My son repeated the requested steps and reached the payment page. However, fearful of angering the machine God yet another time, we hailed the clerk since we now revered him as a person with supernatural powers.

The clerk loaded in the bill and coins and completed the transaction. The whole thing, a $1.36 sale, was so ludicrous that I began to laugh. My laughter grew from a deep well within, and I couldn’t stop it. It was infectious, and my son caught it. We were completely out of control, cracking up together in sheer exuberance. Even when we calmed ourselves, a glance by one to the other reignited the whole exercise.

Laughing with someone else can be bonding and healing. Remember to laugh long and loud with those in your life, even if bystanders look askance and judge your behavior as outrageous.

Photo credit: Eric Kilby on VisualHunt.com

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BOOKS BY: LEE GALE GRUEN

Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement Years: Find Joy, Excitement, and Purpose After You Retire (self-help): Not a one-size-fits-all approach, this self-help book for retirees, those soon to retire, baby boomers, and seniors offers an individualized, detailed guide to assist readers in discovering activities and pursuits in this new stage of their lives called retirement, based on their own likes and comfort level. I learned the secret the hard way transitioning from retired probation officer to actress, author, public speaker, and blogger. Audience members at my lectures on senior reinvention requested a book on the subject. This is the result, and it contains the content of those talks and six years of posts from this blog. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class (memoir): After retiring at age 60 from my 37-year career as a probation officer, I mistakenly enrolled in an acting class for seniors.  A few weeks later, my mother died, and I invited my grieving, 85-year-old father to come to class with me.  This is the true story of our magical journey attending that class together for three years, bonding more than ever.  I wrote the comedy scenes we performed onstage twice a year in the acting class showcases, and all six scenes are included in the book.  I eventually transitioned into the world of professional acting.  As my fledgling, second career started going uphill, my dad’s health started going downhill.  I would recount to him each of my new experiences while I sat beside his bed at the nursing home where he resided in his final years. CLICK here TO PURCHASE FROM AMAZON.COM.

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