Laughing till it hurts

Paula thinks she may be coming home tomorrow (Saturday). (Yea!) She's unhooked from most of the hospital paraphernalia, and someone even said her walking gait looked good, so she's doing well.

Yesterday, the Pinch-Blogger's daughter visited Paula in the hospital, and made her laugh so hard it made Paula's tender stomach muscles hurt. Which reminded the Pinch Blogger of all the times Paula and she have laughed so hard till we cried.

Here's just a few:

• Rolling through the hills of Tuscany on a tour bus after drinking beer at lunch and making out of list of things to remember while traveling in Italy (like always travel with a good friend so sharing beer, water, and chapstick won't be upsetting),
• Racing through the water on a clipper ship returning to Seattle from Victoria, British Columbia, drinking wine (hmm-m, there seems to be a common thread here), while worrying about our car being towed,
• Drinking Guiness with our buddy Jack at a bar in San Diego, discussing religion and where Paula delivered one of her most famous comebacks (so much for her Catholic upbringing!),
• Feeling guilty in Siesta Key because we weren't home on Mother's Day to be with our kids, but found that laughing (and wine) eased our pain,
• And many more, but the most frequent were in our adjoining cubicles at work, where we'd laugh on the phone until we had to hang up before we annoyed our co-workers with our uncontrolled hysteria (and no, we WEREN'T drinking at the office).

I'm so blessed to have a friend like Paula, as are all of you. Hopefully, the next blog you read will be from Paula ...

Retiring Pinch-Blogger Linda (AKA Psycho Sis) (I'll always be there for you, except when I'm in Florida.)