Life feels like I am constantly failing at something: exercising. reading with kids, community obligations, being friendly, sense of humor... Even when I feel mostly caught up on life and work, there is always that one thing that I just don't get around to... emailing the rabbis about H's upcoming Bat Mitzvah, dusting, getting in touch with other Hebrew School parents, answering my emails...
Sense of humor - just today, E told me "yeah, mom, I can't tell when people are being sarcastic, just like you... but a least I get jokes - you really don't get humor, do you...."
It's true. I have a hard time understanding jokes - especially those told by people I don't know well. Probably a combination of not enough common reference (you got to have the same frame of reference to share jokes, or they'll make no sense), poor auditory comprehension (especially when I'm not used to the person's speech patterns and/or accent), and poor social skills.
Trying to tell a joke is a disaster - I can't tell jokes at all. It all comes out wrong. People give me odd looks. On the other hand, when I'm sharing my deepest, inner-most thoughts and feelings, people think I'm hilarious. So sad.
Half the comedies make me cry. Or stress me out to the point I have to leave the room.
Some comedies I do OK with. We just watched "Top Secret" with kids - that was good. I can watch Friends and The Big Bang Theory without hiding my head under the blanket. A lot of Monty Python I am good with even when I don't get 100% of the jokes. But shows like Seinfeld, or Borat, or even Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (to be fair: the 1/4 jokes that I was able to understand were fantastic) - I just can't. Or things like Dumb and Dumber - no way.
I wonder if sense of humor is a kind of a skill that can get better with practice... Perhaps I should try more comedies, or books that are funny, or practice telling jokes to my kids...
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