Topic 168: Gigglers and Growlers

Carol:

  The Mood Scale

Every household has its gigglers and growlers, family members whose default temperament falls toward the outer poles of the “grin to grimace”  Mood Scale.  My mother was usually as close as it gets to the happy face side of the scale; as a teen-ager, if  I heard her hand on the  knob of my bedroom door in the morning, I would spring up to avoid hearing her chirpy voice call out “Goooood morning. Rise and shine.”  Most teen-agers tend toward the scowling face side of the scale, so I often considered responding (but didn’t dare) with my favorite line from The Glass Menagerie, “I’ll rise, but I’ll be damned if I shine.”
 

When I went away to a women’s college, It didn’t take long to figure out who the morning people were by looking in the dining hall. Some of the tables would be full, with 8 or 9 girls already chatting full speed and giggling from time to time.  As far away as they could possibly get were the growlers, two or three to a table at the most and spread as far away from each other as possible. They didn’t make a sound as they sipped and stewed over their morning coffee.
 

Somewhere in there, I became my mother. I morphed into the happy, chirpy morning person and it didn’t take much to move me over to the silly end of the Mood Scale. One night at dinner in the dorm, I started laughing so hard that I inhaled wrong and a noodle came out my nose.  When I transferred to the California university where I met my husband, I got a little more sophisticated.  One night at the local bar, I started laughing so hard that I inhaled wrong and beer came out my nose. 
 

I guess my happy face temperament was pretty obvious because one of my literature professors wrote a job reference for me that described my personality as “ebullient,” which the Free Online Dictionary defines as “zestfully enthusiastic.”  The first school job I applied for required a photograph (it was legal then), and when I got the job, my principal said she could tell from my smile in the picture that I would be perfect to work with her students.
 

I learned the meaning of “laugh till you cry” when I got pregnant with the co-author of the daily theme essays. A group of friends went out to dinner 2 or 3 nights a week after work. I would get the giggles over the slightest remark (it didn’t have to be funny) and begin to laugh uncontrollably. Suddenly, the mood switch would go haywire and I would begin crying hysterically.  My friends were just a little concerned, but I would eventually settle back down and then fall asleep at the table while they were still eating. Ah, hormones. 
 

Sometimes I laugh at inappropriate moments, like when Marc dropped a scuba tank on his foot. I figured the tank had to be light since it was full of air (okay, my physics background isn’t so solid) and the expression on his face was odd enough to set me off. However, his mood shifted pretty quickly to the growling side of the scale. I guess broken toes are nothing to laugh at.
 

I still sometimes laugh so hard that I start crying. Megan watches my expression when I read her essays for the daily theme. She knows she has hit a rhetorical home run if I start weeping when I laugh.  Although she has a tendency to exaggerate for comic effect, you can tell from her cartoons that she can be a growler, especially when she is waiting for me to finish my essay. Okay, okay, don’t get so grumpy!

Megan:

Sweet and Sour

When we pulled this topic, I immediately thought of Bella – as she is a source of both amusement and extreme frustration.  She turned 4 months old this week, and right on schedule she started losing and re-growing her teeth. First it was the little teeth right at the front of the mouth, and those grew back overnight. Now she is missing her canine fangs, which have been replaced by the tiny little nubs. I know it’s uncomfortable for her and that is why she is chewing everything, but I can’t help but think she takes some delight in the destruction.

She enjoys making a mess.

Mom asked me the other day if I thought Bella had a sense of humor. She likes to play, but I’m not sure she interprets anything as funny. She definitely has a temper and occasionally urinates out of frustration. We watched her dig frantically  in Milo’s bed, growling and whining, and then she just squatted and peed right in the middle of it. She also seems to have some sense of embarassment. This morning she rolled over and fell off the bed, and immediately began jumping up and down and sprinting around the room, as if the fall from the bed had been the beginning of an acrobatic show she’d been planning all along. After she wears herself out, she is usually quite sweet.

Mom thinks this picture makes her look bald.

We cleaned the house yesterday, and I found 6 toys under the couch. Keeping Bella under control is a lot easier when there are no distractions and things she can get into, like food on the counter, tissues on the floor or dresses hung up in the closet.

The strap is probably repairable. What you can't see is the blood all over the dress.

As requested, here is a picture of the new one.

Maybe this will be an incentive to keep things tidier, because there is still plenty to keep her occupied. Milo, for example.