Work has been busy.  We have tons to do with few resources and very little time.

So when a colleague of mine had a baby shower at 3 p.m. yesterday, I was already a little punchy.  That, on top of the fact that I’m on friendly terms with the mother-to-be, meant that I felt no real need to be on my best behavior.

At the party, people played a game that I had never played before.  (Probably because I don’t get invited to baby showers often.) You take a spool of yarn and you unravel as much as you think will fairly represent the circumference of the mother-to-be’s belly.

The bright red yarn was handed to me and I started pulling out long streams of the stuff.  I kept going and going.  It spooled around my feet in a little colorful puddle.  I said, “Nah, I don’t think I’m done yet.”

The people who knew me saw what was doing, snickered, and helped themselves to more cake.  But at some point I looked up and noticed that other people were gazing at me in open, undisguised horror. Their expressions signaled: “You are making a joke that is going horribly, horribly awry.  You are a terrible person who will burn in Heck.”

I said, “Oh, I didn’t realize we were just trying to measure the mother’s belly.  I thought we were measuring the size of her heart as well.”

After that, everything was fine.