A Hilarious Time Shopping for Lip Balm

I had such a hilarious time at Rite-Aid yesterday, shopping for lip balm. First off, Aaron thought we should just go to Ralph's, as it was closer, but I insisted on Rite-Aid. "I don't want the stuff they sell in the check-out line," I told him. "I want Burt's Bees!"

Once we got to Rite-Aid, I tracked down a clerk who thought I wanted something to make my lips "puffy." I suspected she was unfamiliar with the word "balm," so I told her I was looking for Chapstick. Aisle 15, she suggested.

Aaron did a little dance to indicate he was so happy we were at Rite-Aid.

Burt's Bees came in two varieties--peppermint and honey. I figured we needed to experience both.

But the adventure continued. "As long as we're here," I said, "let's really see this place, OK, son?" I told him that I used to spend a lot of time at Rite-Aid when he was a kid, shopping for stocking stuffers at Christmastime and for strange Easter candies. On that note, we took a gander down the Easter aisle. I spotted a chocolate bunny that was not standing upright in its box, making it look a bit depressed. This bunny's decline set us laughing, as did the Hubba Bubba chicken that, as Aaron put it, "poops plastic eggs."

Next up was the outdoor-entertaining aisle. "Here's my tip for you, son. If you're strapped for cash and you need a place to sleep, you can buy a lawn-chair cushion for under 30 bucks instead of wasting hundreds on a bed."

"Or you could just buy a whole bunch of them and tack them to your bedroom walls," he suggested. "A padded room."

I told him he was being silly.

After a few giggles about the fake-palm branch cabana umbrellas, we paid for the lip balm and exited the store. Before we even got to the car, I had ripped open the peppermint and applied it to my lips. Aaron did the same.

"Ooooh, it's so...."

"Tingly?"

"Yes, yes, it's tingly! Oh, that's so nice!" I squealed. "But what's going to happen if I put the honey variety on top of it?"

The honey scent smelled like real honey. I was SO glad we hadn't gone to Ralph's to get Chapstick! I was giggling with delight. "Who needs drugs?" I wondered.

"You sure don't," Aaron agreed.

And so we continued to laugh and carry on, all the way home.

This morning, before he went to work and I went to see my mom for Easter brunch, I was smiling and beaming once again, remembering our Rite-Aid silliness. "Isn't it too bad," I said, "that so few people in this country could have had the fun that we did at Rite-Aid? Isn't it a shame how lacking in simple fun so many people are?"

"Yes, it's really too bad."

In all fairness, I spent a great deal of my life as a sad sack, letting loneliness, ostracization, health problems, rejection, and all the other ills of living get me down. And then I found silliness!

Although it sure helps to have a partner in silliness, it's not absolutely necessary. Often I catch myself laughing when I am alone, laughing at something silly I just did.

So I encourage all to give silliness a try. You won't regret it. And maybe it will mean you won't have to use drugs to get you to where silliness can take you for free.