Ode to Mike

This post is for my dear brother-in-law Mike.

We have some narrow stairs out the back door of our house. Narrow and slanted slightly forward. There have been a few people who have fallen down these stairs including Mike, Madeline, Jared and myself. I laughed every time.

A little background on my problem. There aren't to many things that can make me laugh as hard as people falling down. I DON NOT relish in the pain and embarrassment of others but I laugh, hard, at the physical act of falling even if it is me. When I was attending SUU the winters were my favorite. People were falling all over campus constantly. I remember carefully walking down a set of snowy stairs and getting to the bottom and falling flat on my back. There I was, splayed out on the ground, and I laughed and laughed. People were trying to help me up and all I could say in the midst of my laughter was "Did you see that?" and "That was awesome." One of my favorite shows is AFHV which 75% of the videos are of people wiping out. I wonder why it's my favorite?

Anyway back to Mike. This summer Mike fell down our stairs. I didn't see it happen but when I heard about it I laughed really hard and I don't think that he was very happy with me. Even a couple of days later when he showed us the serious bruises on his back I laughed. I don't mean to be rude. It's just that the vision in my head of someone falling is so much stronger than the pity I have for their pain.

Seriously, no joke, Jared just fell down said stairs on his way to Young Men's. It's not funny yet I laugh. I think that I am sick.

Well all of this brings me to Wednesday last week. I was headed to the car to take Madeline to preschool when I slipped about halfway down and fell on my lower back, kicking Madeline down the last two steps. It was pretty bad. It took me a while before I could stand up or see because of the tears in my eyes. I called my Ob and they put me on a 24 hour bed rest to monitor everything that the baby would do, which everything is fine. I could hardly move for about 4 days. So, I thought about Mike every time I thought about my fall and I realized that it really is not funny. But, then on Friday Jared asked me exactly how I fell and as I was telling him I started to laugh so hard. So if it is any condolence to you Mike I even laughed at myself after a very scary fall. I hope you don't hold this sickness I have against me. I feel bad about you falling. But I cannot promise that I won't laugh again if it is brought up in a conversation or if you fall down again. That goes for anybody else too. Sorry.