Monday, February 21, 2011

"That's funny" said without laughing or smiling.

Do you drive a stick shift car or an automatic? I don't have a fat clue how to drive a stick shift car. I don't even know what you call it. Is it manual?

My brother is one of the few people who can make me laugh. I don't mean to be a laughing snob, but it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. I often find myself smiling and saying, "that was funny" while no laughter comes out of my mouth. I hope that's not rude.

The other day we were laughing about a conversation we once had about driving a car with a stick shift. The original conversation went something like this...

(After making multiple stops after my sisters wedding and now driving approximately 37 miles per hour on the interstate)

Rob: I didn't know that you could drive stick shift. When did you learn?
Jon: I have never driven stick shift before. This is my first time.
Rob: What? So you just thought you could do this?
Jon: Yeah.
Rob: Shouldn't you have practiced or something? I mean I'm kind of scared now.
Jon: I'm doing good though right?
Rob: Yeah, but this isn't your truck. Did they know you couldn't drive stick?
Jon: They didn't ask. They needed this stuff thrown away so I borrowed their truck.
Rob: And you asked me to come with you?
Jon: Yeah.
Rob: So how did you know that you could do this?
Jon: I just looked at the gears and figured it out. I think we are in third gear now. I'm too scared to go out of third.

Now this conversation isn't an exact quote. It happened 11 years ago. He was 17 years old. I'm not sure if you will find the conversation funny. If you don't you can just leave a comment while not laughing that says, "that was funny."

29 comments:

  1. Rob, I drive a manual so when I read this, I laughed out loud. Great post!

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  2. Thanks Meara0705. I was hoping someone else would.

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  3. Yeah this is quite funny. Definitely blog-worthy. Your brother seemed so matter of fact about it.

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  4. Yes this is definitely funny. My sister and I both learned to drive on a column shifter manual truck. It reminds me of when she and I were out and she informed me that she didn't see why second gear was necessary, she could just go from first to neutral to third. Needless to say, the truck went through a lot. Great post Rob!

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  5. I can drive a stick shift. I found this post to be very funny, though I did not laugh out loud. I find lots of things funny that don't make me laugh.

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  6. I like to think of it as laughing on the inside. I do it a lot. I try to smile or laugh sometimes, though-- kind of like hugging people. It's just nicer and more polite to do so!

    And thank you-- I'm now going to write a blog post about how I learned to drive a stick shift.

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  7. I love being around you & Jon. 2 of the funniest people I know. The good news for you in that situation is that Jon is good at everything he tries.

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  8. Shared with my office-mate. She is still laughing.

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  9. Susan, you are welcome. I look forward to your post.

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  10. Made me laugh. My favorite line "so you just thought you could do this???"
    I can hear you saying that. ;)

    //TC//

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  11. I often laugh out loud at the things you write! This one made me laugh on the inside. There have been plenty of times where we have had to pause a TV show or something so I can read it out loud! I love to read funny posts! Thanks for sharing this story! And PS, I never learned to drive stick shift, I think one of my old boyfriends tried to teach me but I didn't really care to learn!

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  12. Funny Rob. This did not make me laugh out loud but it is funny. If I knew your brother better it would probably make me LOL. And, I can drive a stick shift.

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  13. Rob I thought that was really funny because I can relate to being wih someone that I thought knew how to drive a stick shift only to find out they didn't while we were rolling down a hill backwards : ). My nephew saw that we were friends on Face Book and he asked me if you had a brother named Jon? I told him I didn't know and I would ask you BUT I had not yet and now I know you do. He says he hung out with you guys when he was young and told me to ask you if you remember when Jon got a peanut stuck in his nose? His name is Shane Roberson.

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  14. Kim, yeah I've talked to Shane online. He told me that story about Jon.

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  15. That was funny....

    Steve bought his first car, and it was a stick shift. He had never driven one before and drove it off the lot. I know another guy who did the same thing. It must be a guy thing. I could never do it. What is funny is when Steve used to try to teach how to drive stick on his Integra. He would wince the entire time. Needless to say, I never really drove it except in parking lots.

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  16. Coming from you that means a lot. Thanks for the comment.

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  17. If it's a guy thing then I'm in trouble because I don't have a fat clue how to drive and I would stall out if I tried.

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