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2004-10-16 - 3:07 p.m.

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you.”

This afternoon the urge to put something in this journal hit me. Unfortunately, I was unable to pull an original idea out of my knotty old head, so I went to a journal prompting site and rummaged around until I stumbled on a prompt asking when was the last time I had laughed out loud.

Easy.

Wednesday afternoon.

When I got home from work the nursery workers were here busy with the fall shrub and flowering bush care. We chatted a bit about the health of my landscaping, then John asked: “How’s your friend’s evergreen tree?”

The tree, I told him, had miraculously survived, thanks to his expert assistance.

My friend’s evergreen tree is the one diva and I decided we would cut back and shape to a manageable—small-- size. One Saturday afternoon last May, equipped with a tall ladder, a saw, hedge trimmers, a fifth of vodka and plenty of lemonade for mixer, we attacked the tree. What we weren’t equipped with was any knowledge of how to go about trimming and shaping an evergreen tree. Lack of knowledge has never stopped us before and it wasn’t going to stop us that afternoon, either. We worked for several hours--taking periodic breaks for libation--hacking and eventually butchering the tree. The more we worked, the bigger the mess we made, until diva and I both realized we had destroyed the tree and admitted defeat. We also realized we’d attracted the attention of several neighbors who undoubtedly questioned not only our tree trimming skills but our mental health.

The same May day was also prom, and we’d promised the kids we’d be at the grand march. We’d worked—and bickered at one another over the proper tree-trimming technique-- to late to clean up, so after filling my truck bed with branches, we went off to the Middle School auditorium, our sweatshirts stained with sap, our hair stuck full of evergreen leaves. Following the grand march, we cruised the school campus for a dumpster—out of vision of the security cameras—and unloaded the tree debris. On Monday, the same tree debris was stacked outside the dumpster, and both diva and I worried the day away waiting on the campus security cop to arrest us for illegal dumping. On Monday, I also called John and hired him to save diva’s unsightly evergreen.

Before he left Wednesday, I assured John diva and I would never again attempt to barber her evergreen, nor would I ever try to groom my own shrubs and bushes.

“Thank gawd. The two of you made a living hell of that tree!”

I laughed long and hard, thinking the poor man had no idea what all we’d managed to make a living hell out of in our 34-year friendship. That poor evergreen was minor in the larger scheme of things.

Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you. -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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