Frown Face

Something happened this morning and I can't decide how I feel about it or what my reaction should be - hence the frown on my face the whole day.

From my blogger name, LaughingLee, you might have deduced that I'm generally a happy person. My first reaction to almost everything is laughter. It helps me cope and it's way more fun than either crying or getting angry or smashing someone's car window in. Although the latter can be very therapeutic, or so I'm told. I'm constantly laughing and loud in a conversation. My friends say I'm not overbearing, but I'm not sure if it's because they really mean it or they don't want to poke the crazy always grinning bear :-).

I was having breakfast with a friend in one of our regular haunts this morning. It's a family restaurant with kids running around, but it wasn't very full. At the most 15 people were there at any given time. We had chosen a booth in the corner and spent about an hour and a half chatting about work and life and whatever else came to mind. At one stage, a waiter came to us and asked that we keep it down. Apparently I was laughing too loudly and it was bothering the other customers. I was dumbstruck. I didn't know what to say and simply nodded at the very nervous looking waitress.

I didn't know whether to be insulted or complimented or to feel sad for people that don't like the sound of laughter. We weren't making noise. We weren't drunk and nasty and a nuisance. We were friends enjoying each other's company. My other thought was that maybe some of the other customers were jealous. Maybe that had had a rough week and had nothing to laugh about.

Geez! What kind of world or community do we live in where people laughing counts as noise? We are inundated with images of violence and war over the news and other media. Wouldn't more happy sounds be welcome?

In any case, I had a great morning and I hope the complaining customer's mood improved. Maybe they went to the doctor and had that painful stick up their ass removed? One can only wish :-).