100 laughs in a day = 10 minutes of exercise!

I believe it, but I don't even laugh every day anymore. Of course I smile and grin, maybe give a chuckle or two, but actually laugh... every day, I don't think I do.

The other day I went to the walk-in clinic to get my iron prescription filled. I used to have the over the counter stuff, but apparently that wasn't cutting it anymore. I am still friggen' tired all the time, but if I don't take those iron pills for a few days - man, I am almost non-functioning - lazy really, with NO desire to do anything. The problem with iron is absorption and I'm terrible at following the rules. Personally, I'm just happy if I remember to take them every day, but you aren't supposed to take them with calcium. This means, one, I shouldn't be taking them in the morning with my breakfast cereal, or oatmeal with milk or my peanut butter sandwich with a glass of milk on the side. It also means I shouldn't be taking them with duh, my calcium supplement. So, all this time, I've been taking my iron pills with breakfast and calcium pill. I've tried to remember to take it later, get into a routine of taking it at snack time with a glass of orange juice, because Vitamin C helps absorb more iron, but snack is often on the run and I forget to take it then, so I'm back to taking it with breakfast, but at least I'm taking it, right? In the meantime, I'm adding more raisins, dried apricots and oatmeal to my diet. We already eat broccoli and asparagus pretty much weekly and I'm trying to add more spinach as well. All the big iron storers (especially the easily absorbed irons) are meat, especially red meat, which quite frankly we don't eat regularly do to other diet restrictions, like Jay's cholesterol... we stick to chicken and turkey (and pork loins, too).

Okay, where was I going with this... oh, yeah, after waiting almost an hour at the walk in to have them simply sign a prescription to renew my drug, she asks me a load of questions. One being, "Are you happy?" This question sent me for a bit of a loop, I mean why wouldn't I be happy? I have a wonderful husband who is an even better dad, 2 great troublemaking kids, a supportive family and sisters that I chat with weekly (right, Les?), I have a job that I enjoy, roof over my head, food and water to drink and good friends, too! So my answer of course is, "yes, I'm happy, just tired." Hmmm.....

Let's backtrack to about a week ago. I went for a walk with a couple of colleagues of mine (Hi Lisa and Natalie!) I brought up the idea of friendship. I'd seen this discussed on another blog and was interested by how many different people had responded. Some saying they lived in their hometown and had loads of friends mostly still from high school, some saying they have found it hard to make friends as an adult due to lack of time with children and work, while others were saying that they have a high expectation of their friends or friends let them down.... So, I asked these colleagues of mine, what makes a friend? When do you get to that place where you say friend, instead of colleague or neighbour or are those words just used to give more specific information. In this post I am referring to them as colleagues, but really they are friends of mine from work. Other colleagues I might simply use co-worker, because really I am not their friend - we don't do things together outside of school and I honestly don't know much about them outside of work. Does this make sense?

I like to think I have a lot of friends, but I have a horrible memory (as many of you know and can't believe actually how bad it is). I don't remember details, like how many siblings my friends have or what their names are (the names of their siblings, not the names of my friends, ha, that would be really bad). I may meet the same friend of theirs 4 or 5 times over the course of years and still not really know who they are talking about when we have a conversation. I try to be a good friend, be helpful, keep secrets, listen, but I have to start paying more attention to the details.

Another part of having friends is having fun. Often I get together with my friends to scrapbook, which I do enjoy, but would most of us scrapbookers classify that as... FUN? It can be fun, especially when you add food, drinks and prizes, etc. but generally I would say it is a nice, social experience. So, when did I last have FUN? When did I last laugh - laugh enough that it felt like exercise? When do I remember feeling happy and not just knowing I was? These are good questions? Do you know the answers to them for yourself?

Another issue we talked about on our walk, after we determined that we were indeed more than colleagues, but friends... was anxiety. I've never called what I have anxiety, I've always referred to it as nerves. What's the difference? Probably nothing, but having a bad case of nerves doesn't sound quite as bad as saying I have an anxiety problem. My "nerves" do prevent me from doing fun activities I would like. Anything that brings me too far from home,(downtown) has drinking involved (bar), puts me with people I don't know as well (going out with friends and their other friends) and even sometimes just out of nowhere (in the middle of a movie theatre with Jay), I seem to get a bad case of nerves. Usually part way through the event I start getting the shakes, chattering my teeth even, stomach starts to turn... just need to get home and go to bed, pretty much right away. This is no fun, so I have started avoiding situations that are "uncontrollable". This means I am saying no to a lot of fun events, like this weekend I passed up on Chippendale's and I don't mean the chipmunks! Ha! Anyhow, this has to play a factor in how much fun I have and in turn how much I am laughing. Staying in control all the time, doesn't allow for as much of a feeling of freedom.

So, all that said, when did I last have fun... well I can't remember exactly, but I remember having a great time when Darren came for a visit! He lived in dorm the same summer Jay and I originally got together and he is a kook of a character. Darren, you are so much more than funny, but you sure have a way of making us laugh and simply enjoying our time with you - thanks! That was almost a year ago, boy I sure hope I have laughed since then. Actually, I do remember another good laugh, with one of my "friends from work" mentioned above. We were at a wedding shower in the summer time and I was telling her a story and once she started laughing she couldn't stop and we laughed and laughed at almost nothing, but it was soooo much fun! And you know what? I love her for thinking I was funny.

I am making it my mission to find a good laugh and make other people laugh! We all need to burn off a few calories, right?