Brandelyn: Lyrical Contradiction

            “And the depth of the laughter! The way it seemed to go so far down inside it scraped the inside bottoms of feet. No one laughed like that anymore. Nothing seemed funny enough. When his uncle and his guests finished laughing, they seemed lighter, clearer; even their activities appeared to be done more gracefully. It was as if the laughing emptied them, and sharing it placed whatever was laughable and unbearable in its proper perspective.”

Alice Walker, The Temple of My Familiar

            Saturday was an insane day. It has been a long while since I had a day like that!  It started with a morning conference call for a project I’m working on. Then I had fifteen minutes to get showered, dressed and find a parking space in Jack London on a Saturday so I could attend a luncheon I was invited to. Surprisingly and with much prayer, I actually made it on time. Well, five minutes late, but the program didn’t get started until 1 so we were all good. The luncheon was for a program called SMASH (Summer Math and Science Academy) where I was a guest speaker this summer. The program is five weeks long and this was their end of the program celebration. It was really nice. These students are so amazing. They are all in high school, sophomore to seniors and they truly are the cream of the crop. Amazing. So I’m sitting there, enjoying my raspberry sorbet and literally out of the blue, my name is called and I was awarded the first annual SMASH Hero Award for my “Accomplishments and Social Conscience”. It caught me completely off guard, but it was really nice. I have my certificate hanging up on my wall as we speak!

            The next stop was at my friend Lee and Kacy’s house for Kacy’s surprise party. I got there an hour and half late, trying to make sure I made it after the surprise. However as it turns out, I made it just in time. I love my people. So we were instructed to bring gifts that represented our relationship with Kacy and a friend of mine brought a basket filled with all kinds of stuff, and it had a pitcher of water and a bag of flour. Kacy, calls me and starts laughing but I couldn’t figure out the joke. Then my friend started telling the story and I fell out laughing. Back at Cal, a few of us were chillin at Kacy’s old apartment and the boys there decided to throw us out of the house and lock us out. Then they thought it would be funny to throw water on us from the windows. So we retaliated by throwing water and flour on their cars. It was hilarious. As we relived the moment, I was laughing so hard and for a second, the sound of my laughter surprised me. It had been so long since I had genuinely laughed like that and while most of the people at the party were looking at me crazy for laughing like that, I needed it. I felt like that laughter emptied out all of the negative weight I have been carrying around and I just felt better.

            After that, I went to a friends house to wash clothes and just kind of relax for a minute. It was really nice just being around girls, not doing anything, watching the fifth element and eating cookies. Not to mention the laundry facilities that probably saved my whole situation.

            With my fresh clothes in the back seat, I headed back to Oakland to stop my friends house who was having a party for her daughter’s first birthday. I sat on the floor among the balloons and candy and just chilled. The music was good and it was nice catching up with my girl.

            Once I left her house, I stopped by yet another function just because I promised I would and was there for about five minutes.

            Twelve hours later, I walked back into my apartment put my clothes away and woke up the next morning on my couch. I don’t even know what happened. But I do know that I needed everything that happened that day. Sometimes you just need to be reminded that it feels good to be alive and thriving. No matter what is going on, a good laugh can just change your whole perspective.

Peace Y’all

B