Life's Simple Pleasures

We were in the lift.

It had already been a long day.

Husband + ukulele + 2am = zombified brain for me.

I take some of the blame myself. Yes, he woke me up, but it was my stupid brain refusing to shut off that stopped me getting back to sleep again.

Sarah and I took our usual trip to the staff room in the other building for lunch, and I spent most of the time staring into space, unable to make my thoughts focus on anything at all.

Sarah’s great. She recommended me for the job in her team, and it was only her insistence that I was serious about the role that persuaded the panel to give it to me. I was rather over-qualified and they couldn’t understand why I wanted a minion position. But I like being a minion. I’m good at it. And it lets me leave my work at the office and enjoy my free time without stress or overtime.

Unless, of course, I’ve been zombified by my darling spouse yodelling to his own accompaniment in the middle of the night.

But Sarah’s sympathetic. She knows my husband almost as well as I do. She was his girlfriend for three years, after all. Yes, while we were actually married. Haven’t you ever heard of polyamory? I thought it might be a bit weird us working together, but it’s turned out great. She’s a good friend, and always happy to listen and commiserate when I want to moan about Graham.

So, the lift. Right. Lack of sleep tends to make me waffle off the point somewhat…

We stepped inside and I immediately slumped against the mirror.

“Still tired?” Sarah asked.

I could have snapped back that it was unlikely I would have got less tired as the day went on, but it wasn’t Sarah’s fault I was suffering severe sleep deprivation, so I just nodded.

I don’t know what possessed her in that moment, but she reached out with one finger and bopped me on the nose. I responded by making a soft honking noise. She did it again. I honked again. The third bop and honk combination coincided with us reaching our floor. We practically fell out of the lift, laughing hysterically, just as our boss emerged from the bathroom a few feet away. She looked a question at us.

There was no way we could explain, so we just laughed harder.

I’m sure the lunchtime hilarity was the only thing that got me through the afternoon.

Life can be complicated. It’s often disappointing. Sometimes, it’s downright tragic.

But the simple pleasure of a moment of madness with a friend can be found in the most unexpected times and places.

And that makes everything better.