Twenty First Anniversary of Kidney/Pancreas Transplant

“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.” George Gordon Byron

Today, July 2, 2015 Dori Gilbert is celebrating the twenty-first anniversary of her Kidney/Pancreas transplant. 21 years ago we were both going thru some very tough times while she was waiting for that transplant. Humor helped us cope with those tough times. finding something to laugh at made the pain a little less, lessened the stress of wondering will she ever get her transplant, and gave hope that she would get her transplant.

Modern medicine saved Dori, Laughter gave her hope.

Please consider becoming an Organ and Tissue donor and save lives, please share humor with other and uplift lives with levity.

Friday’s Jokes and Quotes – Summer

“it’s a smile, it’s a kiss, it’s a sip of wine … it’s summertime!” – Kenny Chesney

“Do what we can, summer will have its flies.”  –  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is a sure sign of summer if the chair gets up when you do.” –   Walter Winchell

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”? –   William Shakespeare

A girl in a bikini is like having a loaded pistol on your coffee table…theres nothing wrong with them, but its hard to stop thinking about it. – Garrison Keiller

Using Humor to Receive Better Service

Humor can break down barriers. The other day I had to return an item to the store. Because it was a chainsaw they wanted to make sure their was something actually wrong with it I had to wait for someone in tools to come and take a look for it. We were waiting their for several minutes and still no one came to inspect it. We were still patient with the store clerk in returns and kinda joking with him. He told me that since I was exchange it with the same model I could just go get a new one while I was waiting. I went and pick a new one out and by the time I got back the employee to inspect the broken chainsaw still hadn’t come to the exchange booth. While I was gone my neighbor was making small talk and joking with the guy. When I returned the clerk said, I’m not going to make you wait any longer and let me go without any paper work.

Had we been rude and impatient the clerk would have made us wait but because we were nice and kept it light by using humor the clerk wanted to help us and let us exchange the saw without having to show what wrong with it.

If you want good customer service smile, be pleasant and use a little humor.

Friday’s Jokes & Quotes – Baseball

“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there are men on base.” Dave Barry

“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.” Ted Williams

“A hot dog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.” Humphrey Bogart

“When they start the game, they don’t yell, “Work ball.” They say, “Play ball.” Willie Stargell

“When we played softball, I’d steal second base, feel guilty and go back.” Woody Allen

“Nolan Ryan is pitching much better now that he has his curve ball straightened out.” Joe Garagiola

“It’s hard to win a pennant, but it’s harder losing one.” Chuck Tanner

“No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.” Tommy Lasorda

“I was such a dangerous hitter I even got intentional walks in batting practice.” Casey Stengel, 1967

“Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing.”  Warren Spahn

April is National Humor Month

It should be no coincedence that April is National Stress Awareness Month and National Humor Awareness Month because humor and laughter can help us cope with stress. According to the Mayo Clinic laughter has short term and long term benefits to help reduce stress.

The Mayo Clinic says the short term benefits from laughter may:

• Stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
• Activate and relieve your stress response. A rollicking laugh fires up and then cools down your stress response and increases your heart rate and blood pressure. The result? A good, relaxed feeling.
• Soothe tension. Laughter can also stimulate circulation and aid muscle relaxation, both of which help reduce some of the physical symptoms of stress.

The May clinic goes on to mention the following long term benefits of laughter:

• Improve your immune system. Negative thoughts manifest into chemical reactions that can impact your body by bringing more stress into your system and decreasing your immunity. In contrast, positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses.
• Relieve pain. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders.
• Increase personal satisfaction. Laughter can also make it easier to cope with difficult situations. It also helps you connect with other people.

Remember just because April is National stress awareness month that stress doesn’t just occur during the month of April but the other elevin months can be just as stressful it is important to incorporate humor year round to help relieve your stress.

Don’t Be an April Fool

April is a fun month, not only do we start the month off with April Fools but April is also National Humor Month. The entire month is dedicated to humor. Take this month to dedicating yourself to putting more humor in your life. It will help you reduce stress and live a healthier life, but don’t end your quest of putting humor in your life with the month of April make it a year-long, actually a life long quest to incorporate more humor in our lives.

April is a good month to reinvigorate your humor, the days are getting longer, flowers are starting to bloom and despite a few April showers the weather is a little bit warmer. This is also a good time for Spring Cleaning, clean out your closets and get rid of those things you no longer need. By purging yourself of unwanted clutter you will also feel a sense of accomplishment reducing your stress and therefore making it easier to find time to find humorous things to do.

I enjoy entertaining friends for BBQ’s and pool parties but my house and yard have been so cluttered with stuff the stress of cleaning up before guests arrived and having to move my things from room to room and still have clutter always hampered my ability to completely enjoy my get togethers because I was tired from shuffling my stuff and embarrassed because I still had a mess. This year I decided to get organized and I can’t wait for my gatherings. The back yard is organized so that there isn’t anything out-of-place. A friend was over and asked me what I had done to the yard. I have done a lot around the yard but the most notable thing is that you don’t find things just randomly placed. everything has its place and makes the backyard much more welcoming.

Now I can enjoy my spring with friends and share the laughs not having to feel like I have to apologize for the mess.

Celebrate National Humor month and combine it with some spring cleaning and you will reap the benefits of combining the two.

Friday’s Jokes and Quotes – Spring Cleaning

“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.” Phyllis Diller

“I clean the [hotel] room before the maid comes – you will never find laundry on my floor.”
Scarlett Johansson

“Your home is a garbage processing center where new things are purchased and slowly demoted through various stages of trashification until you’re done.”
Jerry Seinfeld

“I’m a neat freak. I’m constantly rearranging the pantry and cleaning up around the house.”
John Mellencamp

“[My mom] was big on cleaning stuff, which is actually a disservice in a way. Because when I got my first place I had pizza boxes and Coca-Cola bottles all over the place. I just didn’t have those skill sets. I was like, ‘Wow, this is weird because usually I put this down and tomorrow it’s gone, but this thing ain’t going anywhere.'”
Vince Vaughn
“I will clean house when Sears makes a vacuum you can ride on.”
Roseanne Barr

“I’m an organization freak. Cleaning out a drawer…makes me feel calm and sorted. I remember organizing my toys when I was seven years old.”
Reese Witherspoon

Humor is everywhere

It is important to maintain your sense of humor, especially those days where it seems dull and drab and we are just going through the motions. By finding humor during those uninspiring times we can get ourselves out of are rut with the use of humor. humor gives us a different perspective that can help change our attitude and get the creative energy flowing again. Humor breaks the mundane. So the next time you are just going through the motions try and find something to laugh about and see if you start to feel a little more alive.

That’s Showbiz part 1

That’s Showbiz

Lessons I learned growing up in a show business family and how those lessons can help you achieve success.

Lesson 1. Always be prepared to perform.

We were driving to Orange County; my parents were performing at Disneyland Hotel that night. I was bored and trying to sleep in the backseat when I heard my dad say to my mom. “Georgie would be great for this show tonight.” I didn’t want to perform. My only other public performance was a few months prior in my 6^th grade talent show that I had to perform in for a grade in music class.  I was happy I got some laughs from the students and a passing grade in class and I was going out on top. Now my parents are talking about me doing my little stand-up comedy routine on a professional show with them.

When we arrived they told the booking agent that I was part of their act. I wasn’t I had a little stand-up comedy routine that my parents helped me with for my music class in school and now they have me performing at Disneyland Hotel.

The MC (Master of Ceremonies) asked my mother “How do you want me to introduce Georgie? Do you want me to tell them he’s your son?”

She replied, laughingly, “No, Let’s see how he does first.”

No, pressure!

For a couple of hours I was going over and over my comedy routine. Mom and dad were introduced and I could hear all the laughs that they were getting as I watched from the wings. They took their bow gave me a big hug and the MC introduced me. I walked out and for the first time I was on a professional stage. Walking out on that stage was so frightening, the spot light blinded me I couldn’t see the audience, which was probably a good thing standing on stage and being able to see that many people might have been overwhelming.  It took me a couple of seconds to gain my composure and think about what my first joke was. I began to speak and heard my voice through the preview speakers on the stage and that threw me off, but I continued on and I told my first joke. I got a little bit of laughter. I continued telling my jokes and the laughs continued. I finished my routine took my bow and walked off stage. I was elated that I did it but glad it was over.

The MC walked out called me back out to take a bow and told the audience I was Tulara Lee’s son. I guess my performance was a success. Backstage the agent that booked my parents on the show handed me a $20 bill for my performance. My first paid show.

The first lesson I learned was always be prepared you never know when you might get an opportunity to prove yourself and who knows you may earn $20.

Friday’s Jokes and Quotes

“Life is like an onion; you peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep.” –     Carl Sandburg

“Life is like a game of poker: If you don’t put any in the pot, there won’t be any to take out.”  – Moms Mabley

“When they asked George Washington for his ID, he just took out a quarter.” – Stephen Wright.

“You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She’s 97 today and we don’t know where the hell she is.” – Ellen DeGeners.