Brain Farts, I Love Lucy, and Self-Compassion
Volume: Loud “OOPS! I DID IT AGAIN!”
Issue: What does a brain fart sound like?
Date: January 15, 2022
“If I don’t do two or three stupid things in a week, I must be dead.”—Erma C., 88 years old
Brain Farts, I Love Lucy, and Self-Compassion
Crazy situations seem to just happen more and more often, especially when our aging, triple-vaxxed, covid-fearing brains are just not multiprocessing or even single-processing the way they used to! It’s sometimes embarrassing, especially when there are other people around, especially younger people, to witness these brain burps, brain hiccups, and brain booboos!
One way to put goofy happenings into perspective is to think of them as I Love Lucy episodes! The latest movie Being the Ricardos reminds us of some of Lucy’s wacky adventures. Who doesn’t remember the episode where Lucy and Ethel worked on the candy factory line wrapping chocolates, stuffing extras into their mouths and pockets to keep up? Remember laughing out loud at Lucy, who was prepping for an Italian movie, climbing into a vat of grapes and stomping as she do-si-doed around her grape partner? And then there was Lucy getting drunk on Vitameatavegamin tonic as she downed spoonful after spoonful during many takes for the commercial!
We are not alone in our best laid plans turning into disasters. Why not ditch our embarrassment and have a great laugh when we eventually get up the nerve to share our Lucy episodes and brain farts with our besties?! To err is human, to self-forgive is divine... to share is funny!
Annie and Her “Lucy and her Cell Phone” Episode
Annie put on her mask and went into her still-open neighborhood Sears because they had dozens of purses within her budget. She wanted a purse with a zipper pocket on the outside big enough to hold her cell phone, so she tried out one purse by putting her phone in the front pocket to make sure it fit. Then she tried her phone in another purse, and then another cute purse, and another cute purse, and then… she realized that she didn’t remember which purse she had last put her cell phone in!
Annie looked through a dozen purses and couldn’t find her phone! She panicked. Feeling mighty stupid, she went over to a salesperson, who looked all of 16 years old, and explained the situation. The salesperson looked at Annie like she was nuts! Then she took out her own phone and called Annie’s phone, but Annie’s phone was on silent mode, so nothing happened. Finally, after a few minutes, they saw a purse vibrating on the shelf and Annie sheepishly retrieved her cell.
Annie was so embarrassed—and, yes, she did buy that purse! Later Annie shared her brain freeze episode with her friends Brenda and Lillie, whereupon an avalanche of laughter cascaded through the room.
And then Brenda shared her own I Love Lucy episode-style story…
Brenda and Her “Lucy and Her Boob” Episode
Brenda loved to play tennis. One Tuesday morning she went to her tennis club to play with a male friend, and as she unzipped her sports jacket, she looked down and saw… OH, NO! Brenda had had a mastectomy several years before and used a prosthesis on her left side and she had forgotten to put her prosthesis in her bra! She was a 38D on her right side and, without the prosthesis, a 38A on her left side!
Brenda panicked, and then had an idea: she ran into the ladies’ room, pulled out her spare pair of sport socks from her gym bag, and shoved it into her bra. Whew! She was good to go!
Brenda laughed with Annie and Lillie over the new meaning of the saying, “Put a sock in it!”
And then Lillie shared her embarrassing Lucy episode….
Lillie and Her “Lucy and the Sexy Postmaster” Episode
Lillie always sends snail mail birthday cards to family and friends and puts special celebratory birthday cake stamps on the envelope. She recently went to the post office to buy some birthday stamps and, as she was waiting in line, she checked out the postmaster, who was definitely eye candy. His good looks got her musing about her love life.
When Lillie got to the counter, she asked the postman for some “celibate stamps.” He looked at her quizzically. She repeated, “I would like some celibate stamps.” He looked over to his counter colleague and loudly asked, “Do we have any stamps commemorating celibates?” That postman looked puzzled for a minute, then said, with a smile on his face, “Do you mean celebration stamps?” Lillie began blushing and stammered, “Yes, something for birthdays!” Then she quickly paid for her birthday-cake-themed stamps, grabbed them, and ran out the door, as the people still waiting in line chuckled.
Hearing this story, Annie and Brenda started looking for funny, sexy cards featuring hunky eye candy to send to Lillie on her next birthday!
Here’s wishing all your brain fart Lucy episodes are met with laughter, compassion, and self-compassion,
Irene