Crazy perks

Over the weekend, I informed my daughter that someone laughingly called me crazy last week. Now, I know the person and I know "crazy" was used in the kindest and best natured sense. Anne, however, was not so aware of the person's disposition.

"He's right," she said. We were in the car, with noone else around. But her comment kind of hurt my feelings. Then at dinner one night, she did not even roll her eyes at me at the normal suggestion of my "fame." She just gave me a dead stare, hand under her chin, and spoke in almost a monotone as if she was dutybound to humor me.

This morning, I was talking to my mom over coffee. She was in a good humor and laughing at herself (not difficult to do since she is such a funny old lady), when she laughed that one perk about being crazy when you are young is that you don't have to worry about going crazy in your old age. She was talking about herself, of course, and burst into gales of laughter at the "funny" she just made. But what she said really hit home for me and I felt better.

This afternoon, I took Anne for her dental cleaning. She walked into the office several moments ahead of me, as I had dropped my keys on the outside stairs. As I stepped through the door, I heard her give her name to check in, The receptionist immediately responded, "Oh! You are the daughter of the famous author!"

Anne stopped cold. The receptionist later told me that the expression on her face was priceless! Eyes flitting from side to side, it took a moment for her to decide how the receptionist knew of our joke before even making eye contact with me. Anne surmised, "She told you to say that when she called to set up my appointment."

In unison, the receptionist and I both disclaimed, "No!"

Although she could not quite figure out how I set it up, she knew it was a set up. "She is not famous," Anne muttered as she went back in a huff to brush her teeth.

As soon as Anne was out of sight, the receptionist burst into laughter. A former teacher, she got a real kick out of playing this good-natured prank on my teenager. How was it arranged if I did not set it up on the phone? I'll tell you. My own dental cleaning was last week. I put her up to it then.

Like my mom says, being crazy when you are young has its perks. :-)