The Funniest Thing

The funniest thing happened on the way from the hospital. On the way home from an emotionally and physically exhausting night fraught (yeah, I used "fraught", what?) with worry, tears, and overwhelming thankfulness that we emerged from our car "attcident" relatively unscathed.

I was so exhausted that I felt delirious.

After Hubs left to go back to work, my dear friend Scare Bear arrived in her gleaming chariot to take us home (after being awoken by a certain hysterical mother that had no concept of up or down or 10:30 PM calls from the hospital). I tried to explain what had happened, tried desperately to explain the events leading up to the accident, the conversations with police officers, paramedics and nurses but it had all blurred into a giant noisy, brightly colored hallucination. I sat there in her car trying to remember details from the fragments that stood out in my memory. The badges, the officer numbers, the flashing lights - every memory right there in front of me and yet eluding my ability to translate them into words. .

As I tried, failingly, to explain (again) my current state of confusion, she interrupted. "Call Hubs, tell him you are home."


"But I am not home yet, I'll call him later when I plug in my phone."

"No, use mine, tell him you are home and safe."

"But...but...I'm n-...okay". I took her phone, and, unable to figure it out handed it back to her. She dialed his number as I took it back.

"Hey. Scare Bear wanted me to let you know that I am home and safe. But I am not. Barring anything dramatic, I should be there in 5 minutes."

We giggled and he hung up.

Just as I plugged the phone back into the charger Scare Bear slammed on the brakes. We all surged forward. I looked up to see her staring out the window.

And there standing before us was a giant deer, looking back at me, unflinchingly. Fortunately, the deer was unharmed as were we and it bounded off into the woods. As we started down my darkened road at almost 1 in the morning, we began to laugh, harder and harder.

What are the odds that on the same day that I am rear-ended, took my very first ambulance ride, am left at the Emergency Room without a way home, I would also come within inches of having a head-on collisions with a friggin' deer?

Sometimes, on the darkest days, you should look for the funniest things. Those things that keep your feet anchored to the ground, keep your focus on the more important things in life, to keep you laughing instead of going insane.

(So, okay,  it may not be that funny. If you weren't there, I am certain that it is not funny at all, but it kept me laughing until I went to bed.)