March 20, 2009

“I always get confused when I’m right here.”

“Only here?”

“Thanks for the help.”

My partner, Joe Freburger, and I have spent a lot of time over the last twenty years traveling together.  We learned a long time ago that travel is much more tolerable when you maintain a healthy sense of humor.  Fortunately, we have never been short on laughter.

While our travels have taken us near and far, most of our recent trips have been local ones; and, in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan areas, local trips sometimes can take longer than a flight to Miami.  Such was the case on a recent trip around the Washington Beltway.  After finally making it off the beltway with only a few remaining turns to our destination, Joe commented on his hesitation to get in the turn lane, “I always get confused when I’m right here.”

An open opportunity like this is difficult to resist.  My feedback was immediate, “Only here?”  The joke, as you might expect, wound up on me.  “Thanks for the help,” was Joe’s response as he missed making a turn at a busy intersection.

The extra ten minutes in the car finding a place for a U-turn, waiting through lights, and then back-tracking was a great reminder that you can enjoy humor a whole lot more after you’ve provided help.

March 20, 2009