Puff Pieces by Adrian: Laugh Attacks

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Laugh Attacks

There was a moment, not too long ago, when I sat in a room full of very important people that were having a meeting. Of course, I was not a direct participant in this meeting, because frankly, I’m not that important. No, I sat in the back with a couple of other people that I knew through work. As the important people, whom numbered around sixty, carried on with their important meeting, I watched my friend walk back to his seat next to me with a cup full of pretzels, which he then proceed to drop on the floor.

I’ve always tried to conduct myself in a professional manner, and I’ve also always tried to act appropriate for any situation that I find myself in. Even so, sometimes I lose control. There was something about the way those pretzels flew onto the ground that sent me into a fit. I launched into a full laugh attack, and I laughed and laughed to no end. The people around me noticed the pretzels first, and then they noticed me laughing. Tears fell from my eyes. I couldn’t breathe. I tried my best to cover my mouth and crouch over to keep any noise from coming out, and I was able to partially manage, except for a few squeaks that escaped. I couldn’t keep up the secret though, and when I glanced up to see if anybody was watching, I did see some curious onlookers giggling quietly at me. This of course sent me back into my laugh attack.

The solution in a delicate case like this is only to cover my face, pretend I had an important phone call, and leave the room immediately, which I did. I proceeded outside, and unleashed the full fury of my laugh, which without doubt gathered me some curious onlookers from outside too, but I didn’t care about them. I was lucky to be in the back of the room during the meeting, and as I had found out later, the important meeting participants had not noticed me at all.

The laugh attack is something special that happens to me every here and there. I remember that the previous one before that happened to me about six months earlier while watching a movie at the drive in. There was no need to hide that one, of course. My wife has them too. When I told her about my episode at the meeting, she laughed of course, and then proceeded to tell me about hers which had happened while she had been reading a blog with pictures of awkward pregnancy outfits and poses.

I’m not sure if everyone has laugh attacks, but some people like us sure do. I decided to do some research one day, and I found a lot of interesting information on the subject, including the link below, which depicts a televised laugh attack for an on-air announcer during a game. Obviously, the announcer tried his best to remain professional as well, denoted by the period of silence and short, subtle squeaks. Anyhow, for anyone out there that hasn’t experience a laugh attack, I sure hope that you get the chance to, and if you do, I hope that it’s when you are free to laugh out loud.

http://blog.masslive.com/redsoxmonster/2011/07/red_sox_announcers_laugh_like_1.html

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Revolution of the Soul. A Mission Statement.

I am by default, and through no fault of my own, different. I’m not out cruising the boulevard on the weekends, blasting oldies-but-goodies with the homies. I am also not listening to rock en Espanol, speaking in Spanish-only with my friends. I could fit into either stereotype perfectly though, and to an outsider, I probably appear to be from either or both worlds. I have brown skin, which is pretty much all it takes. It’s not that simple though, as others like me surely understand. I speak some Spanish but I also speak perfect English. I went to college. I love hamburgers and fries, and hip-hop, and alternative music. I have simply integrated into American culture from the start, because I was born here, and because I wanted to.

I’m glad that I’m not still stuck in Mexico somewhere, growing up a third world existence, which statistically would have been the case, had my familia never come here. But I am glad to have come from a country and peoples with such a rich and vibrant history. There are many reasons having such a heritage is a good thing, and I am proud to be a part of it. I am glad to have been born here in America, and happy to be part of this system. I’m happier yet that I didn’t grow up as a cholo gang-banging, tagger, too-cool-for school type of guy, even though I’ve had plenty of chances, given my surroundings. That subculture is not all bad either, depending on the level of involvement and the choices one makes. In other words, you can look the part without being a thug, or a social, or immigrant, or anything else, que no? This is true of all life.

So even though I am different, I am by no means alone, and I know this. The problem for me is that I’m not seeing enough representation out there in the media. I’m not seeing a lot of works written, or filmed, for people like me. It annoys me, too, for a lot of political reasons, because our image is grossly misrepresented. Sure the gangbanger cholos are fun to include in film, because violence sells. However, that only perpetuates a false image. These days, it seems as though everyone in this country sees us either as cholos or as immigrants that refuse to assimilate, legal or not. This angers me because we are so many different things including a multitude of diversity within our own subculture. It’s pretty frickin’ beautiful, if everyone only knew…

Either way, I decided to make the changes I wanted to see, on my own. I’m writing stories for me, for you, and for everyone else, and my main characters are all Latino, and not just Mexican-Latino either. My stories are not about quinceaneras or growing up as a pocho in high school. They are not about crossing the border, or starting any revolutions. The only revolution I write about is the Revolution of the Soul. My stories are meant to entertain and inspire people, and hopefully many of you will relate to them in one way or another, and see yourselves there in them, wherever that may be.