LOL.

I love to laugh.

My favorite verse in the Bible is Proverbs 17:22, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones."

How good is that? Laughing is like medicine, it makes everything better. Humor, kids, oh humor is what gets us through life! No one said it was going to be easy, but I can make sure it's funny.

I don't have normal days. A year or so ago my sister joked with me that I can never have a regular day. In an effort to prove her wrong, I tried to have the most normal day possible the following day. Work was great, everything was smooth and beautiful. As I went to lay down my last check on a table, the woman looked straight ahead, looked at me, and then projectile vomited her entire meal.

I will never look at fried catfish and cole slaw the same way.

Neither will you.

Let's talk about some of the things in life that happen to me, that I laugh about.

I was in my citizen clothing the other day. I call them citizen clothing because, being I work all of the time and live out of town, I wear my Cracker Barrel uniform everywhere. People naturally think my favorite outfit includes a button-up Oxford and some hot Goodwill pants with jacked up shoes. Either way, I was walking down the mall aisle (lane, area, pathway?) towards the exit sign when someone begins walking towards me. It was a tall, rather large, man. I hate to stereotype the whole "girl being approached by strange man" but there was no one else around. I tried to act cool....not a big deal....he's not moving out of the way.....don't look up, Kendra. Be calm. Everyone be cool, it's just a normal day.

At the point he was directly in front of me, I had no choice but to slowly look up and prepare for my fate.

"I want...." He began to speak and I had wished to myself I had raised my life insurance policy before I had left the house, "some scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, and some gravy."

My grimacing was now beginning to look out of place. "I'm sorry?"

"You're my waitress!"

Ok, now I just look ridiculous. "Actually, sir, I am owned by no man, but I will be working tonight if you're still in the mood for breakfast for dinner. Good day to you." :Kendra exits the building quickly:

How about while driving? Let's laugh when we get road rage, folks. We already know that #1, I am a terrible driver....easily distracted, easily veered off the road, I hit animals consistently, etc., and #2, I have terrible road rage. People make me angry. So angry. I was driving behind a 300-year-old man the other day going 15 miles below the speed limit, and coincidently, though I began to get goosebumps on my arms from irritation, I was not going to let this get me down, I have nowhere to be and I need to just be thankful that this man at his age even has his driving privileges. But then....it happened. We were soon tailed by a crazed soccer mom, she was speeding, she was on her cell phone, and she was mad at us immediately. I smiled at her in my rearview mirror as if to say, "We're gonna have to be patient with our great grandfather's grandfather up here, ok?" But she wouldn't have it. She laid on the horn. I had to look straight ahead.

Don't get mad, Kendra. WWJDTY. (What would jail do to you?) I clenched the steering wheel as all three of us pulled into the right hand lane to turn at a stop light....Methuselah first, myself second, and a woman who was so red her face was about to explode. She revved her engine.

Kendra, you need to be Christ-like.

Then it happened.

The light had just turned green. I had prepared myself for this elderly elderly elderly man to take at least three and a half minutes to push on his gas and move forward. She didn't even give him three seconds.

She blared her horn.

Homie don't play that.

In the most righteous effort possible, I allowed the old man to choose his lane of choice between the two we had available, and then I pulled into the other one. Right next to him. He and I joyfully drove side my side in slow-motion bliss, as I cheerfully watched Real Housewife of Bloomington-Normal fishtail behind us, waving finger motions I hadn't seen in awhile.

Now, that was not the best judgment on my part, but it was something that made me laugh.

I'm still laughing.

We're going to have struggles in life, we've discussed this kids, but you've got to laugh. Some of you may be sitting there, thinking, "I don't want to. It's not the time for laughter." We're eager to get medicine for whatever ails us, but we're refusing now to do something that works like medicine. God said so!

If you're having a rough day, you're stressed out, you just don't feel right. Pop in a comedy, call a friend who always makes you smile, or think on something that makes you laugh until you cry. Life's too short to be so serious. ;)

Watch this video a couple of times, it'll make your day. This is also why I want a pug!

Royal AWESOME.

Let's talk travel.

I love to fly.

I do not have the face for flying, or apparently the brains.

TSA hates me. Apparently, in their life of misery, they do not see people like me very often.

I love to smile. Smiling's my favorite. If I look at you and you are not smiling, I will flash a big smile until you do....or, in the case of airport security, you think my smile indicates I'm carrying a lot of weed on my person or perhaps a bomb in my suitcase.

Hence the reason I always get checked with pat downs.

I am ticklish.

Do you see how this is rough?

How about those new machines in the airports where you have to step inside what feels like a human microwave, put your hands up in the air (based on personal experience, this is not the time to wave them like you just don't care) and wait to be full-body assaulted by some random spinning x-rays?

I always have something taken out of my bag and thrown away. A bottle of water that they mistake for pure gasoline, some work-out weights in Taiwan...."You no can carry here....I throw away or you no fly".....and some tweezers. My friends, seriously....if someone tries to hijack a plane with tweezers, I will not slide down my seat in fear, I will applaud him and give him some pilot wings, because congrats on being such a dreamer, kid.

I love to people watch. As certain as I'm sitting here typing, every parent with a child looks as if they've been run over by a bus, every old woman with unkept hair will be traveling with a lap dog that looks like it's 19 years old, and every one else will look better-dressed than you. How is that possible? Sometimes I see women in stilettos with their leather handbags and newly-highlighted hair, looking like they just stepped out of a photo shoot, and I think, "How does this happen?" Then in hopes that I can somewhat compete, I run to a mirror. Nope. I am still in an old motorcycle t-shirt with a hole in the armpit, some sweatpants, flip-flops in the middle of January, and my eye-liner and mascara somehow slowly melting off my face. And bed hair. WHY?!?! I just can't explain it, but it's embarrassing nevertheless.

Let's talk cruises.

How did I not know about these?!?! HOW HAVE I NEVER KNOWN THEIR GLORY?!?!

The ocean. GORGEOUS. Who knew there were so many stars in the sky? I love to roam around the ship and read the signs left from somewhat special people. Rounding the corner of the ship, you'll see "Joggers must slow down around corner due to heavy drop off." How many times have they had someone jogging carelessly fly off the edge of a cruise ship?

Glorious food. They have buffets. BAPTISTS LOVE BUFFETS. Gluttony is a sin, but not on a cruise ship, it's an edible embrace. There are pans and pans of bacon. When a pan of bacon is emptied, ANOTHER ONE APPEARS! Endless bacon! How many pigs had to die so that I could spend the weekend on a ship?

They have formal dinners. They give you a menu with a list of 8-10 appetizers, 8-10 entrees, and 8-10 desserts. You don't have to choose between them, you can have them all! I felt like a whale in the ocean, inhaling shrimp-like creatures with each breath. It was beautiful. Could there have been a tear in my eye as I had my eighth helping of mashed potatoes? Maybe.

Every day you're stopped at a different port in the Bahamas. You can swim with dolphins, snorkel, or lay on the beach....all day long. Not saying this happened to me, not saying it didn't, but if you fall asleep with your hand on your arm, chances are you will have a handprint tan line, and it will ruin your life.

All that to say, I was amazed during my travels at how grumpy people were. During the cruise, people were living the high life. At the end of the cruise, they became different human beings. Budging lines, hitting babies in the face with their bags and not apologizing (one person, not every single one), and complaining about everything. I was appalled, but at the same time, it made me think.

We are taught to praise God for the good times, we are taught to praise God for the hard times. All this is amazing and so true, but we have a lot of "normal days". Days that aren't particularly exciting or difficult. But God deserves praise for every day that we have on this earth. The very fact that we're breathing is a blessing. If you're coming off a high or a low, don't forget. God's good all the time. We have so much more than most. If you're reading this, you have internet access somehow. Welcome to being in the tiniest percentile of people on the earth. If you're wearing one set of clothes today while having had tons of pieces to have chosen from this morning when you opened your closet, again, welcome to being overly blessed. Don't take your place in life for granted. Don't take these gifts as normal, as average, or even as deserving. God loves us all individually, and shows in ways we need to remember all the time, even on the regular days.

SO SMILE!