A Quarter Million Laughs

My little Parkinson's Humor blog hit a big milestone recently. The number of people who have logged in and looked at my stories is now over 250,000. Most people find my blog stories by doing internet searches, not by following links I have posted on Facebook or Twitter. The United States, United Kingdom and Canada are still the top three places where my reader's hail from. This makes sense as they are all English speaking countries. In the last few months, France, Russia and Ukraine have been very active, so I want to welcome all of them to Club Parkie, the club no one wants to join.

250,002

It has been quite a while since I had a party for this blog. The last one was almost three years ago when I was at 10,000 so I was overdue. We booked the big room at Da Boyz, our favorite Italian restaurant, and then had to change the date/time several times to accommodate my guests weekly events such as Bingo night, Jeeping day, and the Camera Club meeting. We finally settled on Monday at 2 pm.

The guest list was an eclectic group consisting of Parkie friends, current and former neighbors, Camera Club buddies and one or two other friends. We picked up the cake I ordered and headed down to the restaurant to meet everyone for a lunch.

One of the first things to greet me was a florist carrying flowers from one of my Parkie friends who had a bad cold and couldn't be there.

Do you like my Happy Parkie shirt???

Then friends came pouring in, carrying balloons and roses and congratulatory cards. Introductions were made, hugs were exchanged and we settled down and ordered lunch.

My Wonderful Husband made a small speech, several others did, too. I thanked everyone for helping us through that rough period a year or so ago.

Then we did what we do best. We ate and laughed. After lunch, we ate cake and laughed some more.

Then came the big surprise that no one was expecting. We picked up the check for everyone there. It was the least we could do. These friends have been there since before that first blog story, cheering me on, lifting me up, nagging me to walk, making me laugh, giving me much needed hugs, treating me like their favorite sister/daughter/niece. We are truly thankful for each and everyone of them.

And I am truly thankful for each and everyone of YOU who takes time to read my stories. Have a Happy Parkie Day!  

Da Gold Medal

On Friday night, February 3rd, 2012, my Wonderful Husband and I got together with 10 of our neighbors and went to our favorite restaurant, Da Boyz, located in downtown Yuma, Arizona.  They have excellent Italian food and we go often, usually in a gang of 6 to 20.

Marilyn Deer

We made reservations ahead of time and got the Marilyn Monroe room. This room has pictures of Marilyn all over the walls and even a Marilyn deer (it's a buck, which makes it even funnier). They also have an Elvis room and a Pack Rats room, but I like the dolled up deer (it shows they've got a sense of humor).

Lasagna, yummy!

I love their lasagna, it's almost as good as my Wonderful Husband makes, and I don't have any clean up to do afterwards.   I also like their black & white print plates.

Some of our Gang enjoying dinner

Our waiter was a young man named John and I'm not sure he knew what to make of us, we are a pretty silly bunch.  I took him aside and told him not to pay attention to anything we said because we just got released from the sanitarium.  I think that he might actually have believed me.  


Our Gang will throw a party at the drop of a hat.  We have had a "Cut the tie off the new Palm Tree" party, a "Got a new dining room table" party, and even a "what the heck, it's the last Thursday of the month" party.  If we can't come up with a reason, we'll make something up or drop a hat.  My blog reached 10,000 hits a few days before so this was a 10,000 Laughs party (and a good excuse to eat cake)! My friends teased me and they said I looked pretty good for being "hit" so many times and that I was "one tough cookie" for laughing at my Parkinson's Disease.  

Sharon presenting the Gold Medal

My Wonderful Husband didn't tell anyone the reason for this party, it was going to be a surprise, but I got surprised instead.  My neighbors had decided that I deserved a gold medal and they presented me with one.  It was a grand ceremony and even though it was just the logo cut off a sack of flour and glued to a blue ribbon, it meant the world to me and I will treasure it always.

After the presentation, however, I became a big old softy.  I tried to tell them how much their friendship meant to me, but I got all choked up and couldn't get the words out, instead tears ran down my cheeks, but I was laughing inside.

Thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it. This is just one of a hundred stories in my book, Parkinson's Humor - Funny Stories about My Life with Parkinson's Disease. Please consider purchasing a copy from Amazon.com or your favorite online book seller. Thank you and have a Happy Parkie Day!