It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything...

When people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other. ~Alan Alda

We were driving home from church today when Andrew realized we needed to get gasoline in the car somewhat soon. We were passing a Wal-Mart, so he asked if they had a gas station. They didn't. Andrew was obviously disappointed and pulled into a gas station next door instead. When he pulled up to the pump, he just sat there and let out a loud sigh as he mumbled something about pre-paying. I mumbled back that it was a moot point when one was paying with a debit card and Andrew said that he had wanted to go to the Wal-Mart to be able to use his cash.

I pointed out that the gas station we were at would also take his cash and suggested he give them a $20. (It was an expensive station and that would be plenty to get us home to cheaper supplies.) During all this time, my thoughts were really on a woman who stopped 5 yards from a trash can and then wobbled over to it in her too high heels to throw away a bag of trash and I was hoping she hadn't worn the interesting outfit to church, then correcting myself and hoping that she had worn it to church and not to other possible venues more likely to be associated with the style of dress. Andrew seriously asked me what they do if you give them too much money. I brought my attention back to us as I said that you go back in and they give you your change. It turns out he's never pre-paid with cash before.

This is particularly amusing to me because anything car-related is Andrew's domain. One of his previous passions was cars and he knows them inside-out and backwards. I don't even bother to think about car stuff because I know Andrew has it covered. But today, he was sitting in the driver's seat apparently assessing his options of purposefully underpaying, driving to a new station, or losing any excess because he didn't know what else to do at a pre-pay gas station.

He's knowledgeable about so many things, always beats me in games of strategy, and often feels like he has done no wrong since he has good intentions, so little amusing moments like this help me to love him because I can see that he does have vulnerabilities, doesn't know everything, and is just as human as I am and still has much to learn. I feel like more of an equal to him. I feel like a friend. It feels good to laugh.

What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a laugh! ~Agnes Repplier