Laugh track

For a long time, part of my normal routine involved driving down half of the freeway every other Friday a couple months out of the year with my kids in order to sit and wait in a department store parking lot so that they could get out of my car and get in to their dads truck at which time he would drive down the other half of the freeway to his house for the remainder of the weekend just to do it all in reverse on Sunday. Not an unusual circumstance for lots of families these days sadly and when this particular adventure began I had a difficult time filling the miles between point A and point B with something other than music that my kids didn't really want to listen to or awkward conversation about what they thought the weekend might go like. Pandora was a relatively new thing -  at least to me and when my oldest suggested listening to comedy radio instead of my tired '80's playlist I said sure. Thats when I heard John Mulaney for the first time. I've always enjoyed stand up comedy but since most of my favorites were wildly vulgar I hadn't shared them with kids yet. So there we are.. spinning down our half of the freeway all of us laughing so hard we're almost in tears  as John Mulaney tells a story about a party he once threw in High School and  the awkward miles passed with ease. It was so fun that we did it again on the way home Sunday and then again the  next time we made the drive. We  had created a tradition.  We still quote that first comedy routine we heard of John's and lots of others too. Tonight I sat with 2 of my kids on the couch and laughed to the point of tears watching his newest comedy special and I was grateful for those trips halfway down the freeway when our little unit took an otherwise crap situation and made something good of it. It's amazing what laughter can do.