Several times recently I’ve slipped into bed after my husband has gone to sleep. Using a tiny flashlight I crept in quietly so as not to wake him. And then, lying in bed, trying not to squirm too much, I got the giggles.

The first time this happened, I shook the bed so hard that I woke Dan. “I’m sorry, baby! I’m sorry…I’ve got the giggles!”

He mumbled something that sounded like, “Is okay; I unnerstan.”

Really? You understand? How could you when I had no idea what got into me? That is, I knew what I was laughing about but could neither fathom why I was thinking about it nor why it struck me as so very funny at that time of night.

My giggles were triggered by memory of the morning I woke up early and tried to sneak out without waking him. He opened his eyes and said, “Turn off the alarm.”

To get to the house alarm keypad, I had to step up 2 steps, and they are curved. Because I was still half asleep I was staggering a little. I stumbled, began to fall sideways, twisted to avoid the nightstand and landed smack in the middle of my sleepy husband’s back. I jumped off him as quickly as I could and…well, began to laugh.

“What are you doing! Baby, what are you doing!” Dan sat straight up in bed.

Between snorts and giggles, all I could do was apologize and say, “I fell; I fell over.”

I get giggly to the point of tears every time I think about it. And there I was disturbing his sleep a second time.

But then, I like to giggle and I look for excuses to burst out in laughter.

Any excuse will do!

It’s not funny to fall and it’s not funny to be rudely awakened but in my mind’s eye, I see the incident from a (nonexistent) viewer’s point of reference. I am standing there watching this woman stagger around and fall on her sleeping husband and it is America’s Funniest Home Video!

Sometimes I will start laughing at the evening news. It’s not usually funny stuff; it may be simply awful; perhaps someone died. But there are elements that send me into a spin.

It might be a teenager jumping up and down on the hood of a car. Or a bathtub left standing after a tornado. Or a misspelled word. Or a mispronounced word. Or a politician’s promise.

I think I’m really looking for an excuse to laugh. (See Make Me Smile, Make Me Laugh for more on that subject.)

Laughing is fun; giggling is great. I only pray it doesn’t hit me in the middle of a church service. And I sure wish I could turn it off when the lights go out at night.