Life Can Be Strange--A Little Humor Helps!

Due to life being what it sometimes is, I recently needed to find something to laugh about. There was not a lot going on with humor in it, meaning I needed a good laugh even more than usual.

Reading a few hubs about funny real-life incidents made me think back to some experiences I’ve had that turned out to be unexpectedly funny--mostly as in odd, but also comical.

If the cost is not prohibitive, being able to laugh at the circumstances we sometimes find ourselves in, especially when traveling, really is good medicine.

Good medicine, that is, when you get over being sick of traveling.

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Once when I needed to travel halfway across the world and at the same time be at home I should have expected trouble. The entire episode is still hard to believe.

This trip ended with my husband deciding to drive to Atlanta to pick me up since the Asheville leg of my trip was postponed until the next morning. I saw this coming when the pilot announced we had to remain seated because he was moving the huge jet to a different dock.

When we finally docked there was no reason not to let passengers in a hurry get off first. Sure, I was tired, but most of all I was hungry. It had been a long flight and it would be really late to try to get something on the way home.

How bad could the chain restaurants in the airport be? Settling on something fairly familiar, I chose a meal. Moving to a quieter area to use my computer after eating, I spent the rest of my time there typing and checking email.

Taking breaks to people watch, I waited on my husband to let me know he was at the Atlanta airport. All those people eating, and getting on planes for long flights...

My husband arrived with news. A coyote had run out in front of him in the dark on I-85. This was not a good start to the drive home. It was a few hours after I ate in the airport and I began to feel like I was coming down with a little something.

By the time we were on the outskirts of Atlanta I knew I had picked up one bad-boy case of food poisoning. I do not recommend doing what I did, but I said, “Take me home.” We should have found a hospital.

It was a horrendous trip, the details of which you will be pardoned from here. I’m still glad it was dark and that other drivers could only try to figure out what on earth was going on.

Home finally, and straight to the shower, I nearly killed myself--sick, passing out, and trying to clean up. This was serious stuff. The worst passed and my life was spared.

I was able to rest and try to recuperate the next day. This was important because I needed to pick my father up in the city and take him to a doctor’s appointment the day after that.

I was not up to driving, but he needed to go to see his oncologist, so off I drove, trying hard to pay close attention. That effort was, however, to no avail.

Four lanes of busy city traffic and I was traveling in the center lane. Somehow, when traffic stopped ahead of me, I didn’t stop in time. The crunch stopped me, you can bet, and I knew I was in for trouble.

Thoughts can run wild in a situation like that. When a policeman came he would surely arrest me for being under the influence for I looked like I had been on a binge. My father was surely going to open his door in spite of the fact that I told him not to because of traffic.

We were going to be so late we would not see the doc. The people in the car I hit were going to be so mad they would come unglued--smaller than my Land Cruiser it was a BMW SUV and they would not be happy campers.

Oh no, no, no! It couldn't be! There were two children traveling in that vehicle! I nearly had a heart attack. I did cry.

An ambulance the size of a bus coming toward us in the opposite inside lane saw what happened and it pulled to a stop right beside us. I was safe to step out and check on those children!

The ambulance driver eyed me curiously, but c'est la vie, I’ve looked worse. I spoke to him and turned to the BMW to see those children walking around on the seats, front to back to front--no, wait!

It was women--women my age! I was asking through the glass if they were okay. They looked justifiably angry and confused. On top of that, I’m a tall American who can only sit in my vehicle so I was stunned to see the tiny oriental ladies walking around inside their SUV and I'm sure it showed on my face.

The two climbed out into the street with me as I continued to ask if they were okay. I wanted to pat them on the head, but thought better of it. The ambulance driver was making a call for police to come and I was glad, but at the same time disgusted over having to tell my husband what I’d done.

The ladies talked to each other as they looked their bumper over. Each of us had minimal damage because both are solid vehicles. Then they heard the ambulance driver say the police are on their way.

Four eyes grew very wide. They started speaking so fast that I couldn't understand them. I was getting a little dizzy. I couldn’t understand them at all--I knew I wasn't hearing right.

“We okay, we okay.” “No police, no police.” “No, no; no police.”

I was finally able to tell them that the ambulance driver had already called the police and that they were on their way. The ladies looked at me like I was from another country for they had heard what he said. Then they begin again.

“We okay, we okay.” “No police.” “We go now.” “No police.” “We go now.”

And they did. They just got in their SUV and drove away.

I turned to the ambulance driver and he looked at me as blankly as I looked at him. I glanced at his partner and she turned to look out her passenger window. She was not laughing. I think I heard her say that what she had just seen had not really happened.

I swallowed hard and tried to speak, but could only stand there blinking as the traffic drove around us. My hands went upward trying to talk for me. I didn’t know what to think or do.

The driver said that he guessed he could call the police back and tell them there was no incident after all. It wasn’t a question. He clicked his phone and said, “No incident after all,” then he drove off.

There I stood, puzzling as my father looked out the windshield and traffic whizzed around me, “No incident? No incident?”

I couldn’t very well stand there in the traffic alone. I shook my head trying to figure out what had happened and I realized that my only choice was to get in my Toyota and drive to the doctor’s office.

Maybe I was hoping they might give me something strong...

It’s good to be able to look back and laugh now, but I’m still amazed at the way all that happened. Am I thankful? Certainly. No one was hurt. We made the appointment. I wasn't ticketed, and more.

Can I explain any of it? No. I lived to laugh and write about it, and that’s the truth of how life can be stranger than fiction, especially when travel is involved.

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