fun fun fun

one of the words i often use to describe myself, whenever i have to write some kind of profile, is "playful." sometimes I get kind of down (see previous post) or distracted or irritated, but generally i'm a pretty happy person and I like to have fun. I have a serious life, serious job, serious issues and all that shit, but sometimes I just need to get silly. it's always been just integrated into my personality, but I think it appears incongruous at times, to the outside observer.

it's not just the desire to have fun, the way adults have fun. How do adults have fun, exactly? Going out for meals or drinks or coffee, doing activities like biking or hiking or canoeing...what? what else? taking classes in knitting or life drawing? that stuff isn't really what i mean when I talk about having fun in a playful way. What I mean by playing is more how kids play. You know, teasing (not in a mean way) or wrestling or making faces or talking in funny accents or trying to talk with your mouth stuffed full of saltines...jumping up and down for no reason at all, making paper airplanes or launching plastic parachute men off the balcony. stuff that gets its own momentum so that by the time you're caught up in it you're collapsed in a heap of giggles...then you shrug it off and go down to the corner store and get a popsicle.

I think this part of me predates parenthood, although I'm sure the fact that i spend a large amount of time with a child probably has served to let it come out more than it would otherwise. I don't really feel the need to keep that bubbly energy trapped inside, the way i might if I didn't have a kid around all the time. sometimes farts make me snicker.

Sex is fun. I think -- hell, I know, from first-hand experience -- that nothing kills a sex life faster than always being serious about it every minute. The human body is fun and it's funny. It looks funny sometimes. If we can't laugh at ourselves and our own bodies, then it's very easy to get hung up on our imperfections and start feeling bad about ourselves. I'm very happy to sit and make out, serious as a heart attack, for hours and hours, but then i like to get up from the couch and skip to the bedroom wearing a smile (and nothing else, if possible).

don't get me wrong. i like to have fun in sophisticated ways too. Getting dressed up and wearing makeup and fancy shoes, sitting in upscale restaurants talking about art or politics or fashion. Or sitting down with a bunch of parents and talking about our kids, our schools, our neighbourhoods. For me, those things can be fun too. And in all honesty, i really try to bring as much lightness to those freakishly adult moments as possible. Like I said before, I'm a serious person with a serious life, but I know the value of humour, and I think almost any situation can bear an infusion of fun when it's introduced at the appropriate moment.

but really, almost nothing beats a good game of hopscotch and a gumball from a gumball machine.