Okay, so the east coast now experienced

what the west coast has been exposed to for years – EARTHQUAKES!!! I’m originally from VA now living in CA, so I had to laugh at all the “check ins”. . “are you okay???” that people were doing. I’ve woken up in my bed during a quake when it’s been shaking like a linda blair exorcist movie . . .and then turned over and gone back to sleep (okay, that time it took me a few minutes AND I went through a really fast scenario in my head about selling my place and how much do I have in savings to put down on a down payment for a new place. . .).

But now that the east coast quake has passed,

all 20 seconds of it, can we joke? The answer is YES! And how do I know? Well, there are some signs that you can joke about something serious. Namely that it wasn’t really a disaster. As far as I know, no one died – they were shaken a bit, but no real injuries – so no harm. Of course we will never be able to make New Orleans jokes or Joplin, MO jokes because those were devastating – but this “quake” was not. ALSO the people involved were joking. My friend Ron who “lived through it” had a joke on his Facebook page about a house dropping on Nancy Pelosi. . . very funny wicked witch reference regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on.

But if you’re still worried about offending people

who are in therapy over the quake, then you don’t have to joke about the actually quake. You can joke around it.

• joke about what caused it. A stampede for the Denny’s blue light special? The economy collapsing? Make up a funny cause.
• the aftermath. My friend Ron, with the Nancy Pelosi joke above, also posted a picture of lawn chairs tipped over with the words “we can rebuild” next to them. Just pretending it was a disaster and all the over reaction to it. . .getting FEMA aid or maybe NOT getting FEMA aid on time are all fair game.
• people’s reactions to it. The news has been doing this for 24 hours already. . and it’s getting old. But you can come up with funnier reactions to this earth shaking event if you really think about it.
• -the length of it. I think it lasted 20 seconds. What other bad things last 20 seconds – the happiness in your first marriage, your daughter being homesick from college. What bad things last more than 20 seconds – a speeding ticket, a root canal, you mother-in-law visiting. There’s all sorts of ways you can joke about how long it lasted.

Sure this quake was serious. . .but you can still have fun with it if you want.

Jan

(survivor of about a million of these quakes. . .)