I’m a package deal. Either you get the first joke or you don’t get any
This past weekend taught me quite a lot about myself. Most of which had to be told to me by other people, but none the less their points where all pretty straight on.
I’m not going to lie and say that everyone I have ever met has always liked me. That would be a lie. A blatant lie. Though I have never before sat in a room surrounded by people I know, who know my sense of humor and have one individual just sit there and despise me. That was new. That I have never experienced before. Once it got to the point where I realized nothing good was going to come out of anything I was saying or doing, I decided to just go for it. Granted I went too far. Granted I said things I shouldn’t. But grant me this, she did ask for it. She fed it to me. She gave me no choice.
Often I meet new people and I get the ‘I don’t get it’, which by the way, I thrive on. I am quite used to the ‘Are you serious’? ‘There is no way you can be serious?’, ‘That didn’t actually happen, right?’, ‘Is she really this stupid?’. I really have gotten all of those. I love getting those. If there was silence in response to my stupidity, what then would be the point to me acting to stupid? Wouldn’t I then prefer to act more intelligent?
But Friday night, I got a whole different set of responses to the act that I commonly refer to as ‘me’. The responses I got I never expected, nor did I know how to react to. Therefore, I did what I do best. I took it one step further. Then two. Then three. I picked the thing up and ran so fast I couldn’t even see where I started from. Once there, there really was no turning back; no one can argue that. They can of course argue other things, but turning back was by no means an option.
I spent the entire night doing things and saying things I most probably shouldn’t have said or done. I walked out of there wondering if I was going to be alive the following morning. Getting invited back to that apartment isn’t even an option. But was my food poisoned? Will she find out where I live and come and kill me in the middle of the night? These are all possibilities.
‘Do you play hockey in Canada? You do? So is Canada like Alaska? Because in Mystery, Alaska they play hockey.’
That was just one of my brilliant remarks from that fine evening. I really was on a whole other level. I stepped my game up. I surprised even myself. Hell, I don’t know where half the things I said even came from! My mind was rolling. I couldn’t stop. My comments only got stupider and stupider as the night went on. Next came the comment about the swimming pool and the polar ice caps. Really, polar ice caps? Yup, I managed that one in there.
Later on I realized my talents. I played this girl. I played her well. I won. I will not even bother to argue when you claim my defeat. I was not defeated. I rose to the occasion. And mostly, I did it gracefully. Yes there was blood. But the blood, I drew it gracefully. What she did next was her call and is nothing I am responsible for.
After all was said and done, and let me inform you, there was a lot said and a lot done, we all went home. I was later reprimanded by not one, not two, not even three, but around 10 people for my actions. Some said I went too far. Some said I shouldn’t have done it. Some didn’t even bother with the fluffy stuff and said straight out, ‘you are a total moron’. I prefer the friend who said, ‘Nechama, you are a package deal. Either you get the first joke, or you don’t get any’. And as you could easily tell, as did everyone else, she never got that first joke.
What was the lesson I learnt from all this? Mostly, I have skill. I lack the ability to back down even when I know I should. And lastly, I really want to go to grad school.
