Ha!!!

I've told ya'll a little bit of my childhood environment, but when I think about it, I realize it's probably like everyone's childhood environment - a mix of emotions, attitude, thoughts, actions, everything that confuses and messes with a child's mind.  My childhood was a maze of contradictions that came with no map.  Now I do acknowledge that many, many people had a childhood that makes mine look like a happy fairy tale, but as everything is relative, I can only address mine and how it shaped my life.  One trait I learned very early was what I call reading the mood of the house.  It was one of my survival skills in dealing with my mother.  I could quickly know if any given day was going to be good or bad by observing her for a few minutes in the morning.  And like most children growing up in the 50's, my sister and I were at her mercy because our dad worked and she raised kids.  Well, she raised kids when she wasn't entertaining her friends, on the telephone with her friends, dealing with her own crazy mother, or cleaning. Within seconds, I could tell when she was mildly upset, bigtime upset, or going over the edge upset.  We would do whatever we could to try to get her to maintain some sort of calm, but that was wasted effort.  In an odd contradiction, she really did enjoy laughing and did (and still does) have a sense of humor when she's feeling well.  I'm really thankful that I learned to read my mother because it taught me to read everyone I meet.  I'm quite good at reading facial expressions, body language, and spoken language.  I'm almost never wrong brag brag about people I've met and this skill has helped me a lot throughout my life.  Yes, I've made mistakes by allowing a few people to bully me into friendships.  Of course, they didn't turn out to be friends and I was young and stupid.  Now I'm old and stupid and I make less harmful mistakes, like putting ice cream in the microwave instead of the freezer and throwing out important papers.  And now that I'm older, I always follow my instincts on everything and it pays off nicely.  And I love to laugh, too.  My entire family loves to laugh.  My dad loved to laugh and loved a good practical joke, my kids and their spouses are funny, my sister and her family are funny, and the huzbin is REALLY funny.  He truly does make me laugh a lot and sometimes we laugh so much, we have trouble breathing.  He's that funny!  Laughing is important - it will make you feel better.  If you have trouble laughing, text the huzbin.  He'll make you laugh.  Or call my mother.  But call me first so I can call her and read her mood, then let you know if it's safe.