Laughing matter

For some reason I was remembering our Oregon trip last spring (by which I mean the spring of 2003, last year) and I could just picture one very funny episode as we drove along one day. Leah and I had flown out for Mike and Rachelle's wedding, and Jonathan and Benjamin got to come along for the ride. We were all piled into the back of Grandpa's car, and someone brought up the topic of whether we were all present and accounted for. 'We could call roll,' suggested Jonathan, and then beat us all to the punch by hollering out 'ROLL!' before any of us could. Then Benjamin chimed in, 'We could count legs and divide by two.' 'That only works as long as none of us are pirates,' I pointed out, 'and the same goes for counting by hands or eyes, too.' We all giggled hysterically at the idea of Captain Hook, Pegleg, and One-eye trying desperately to find a way to call the roll. And Captain Hook wouldn't be much help for counting up on his fingers, either. 'One, two, three, four, five...darn, I keep losing my place!' It was one of those never-to-be-forgotten and impossible-to-recapture moments, rivaling in sheer hilarity the time late one Game Night when Mr. Hall went on a rampage describing his method for dealing with fellow passengers who oozed into the neighboring seats - 'Oh, sorry - didn't mean to smack you in the eye there - it's just an uncontrollable twitch that I'm seeing my doctor about - oh, terribly sorry about that...' That night I literally laughed until my sides ached, something I had hitherto been wont to regard as a mere figure of speech.