'gigglers' vs. "The thumpers"

   Last night I did something which brought a funny Sandy memory to mind. Sandy was my college room mate during the time I went back for one semester. While we didn't always 'hang' together, we really did enjoy having each other as room mates!!!! Numerous memories have started coming to mind :-} But for now at least, I'll just share the one.
   We were attending a very conservative non-accredited Christian college. All non married students HAD to live on campus. Meals were served family style at designated times. Chapel was a part of every bodies schedule, attendance was mandatory, and the whole student body attended at the same time. Curfews were strictly enforced. Nightly, you had to be signed in on the board outside your RA's room, and there was even a 'light's out' time. RA's very much had parental type of rule enforcement responsibilities, as well as counseling, etc..
   The thing was, Sandy and I both worked jobs which had shifts getting us back on campus after 'sign in' time. And during the pre-Christmas holiday season, I often got back after 'lights out' time. She worked in an older Sr.'s retirement type of home. I worked in a women's clothing store in a mall. Both of us would get 'home' after work needing to unwind, and yet we were getting back during what was suppose to be either quieter or totally quiet hours. Not a good combination. Especially considering that both of us liked to laugh.
   We also both liked to tell the other stories from our day, and share "people" stories. Trust me, both of us worked in enviorments which provided us with plenty of "people" stories!!! Oh yeah!
   The particular incident that came to mind last evening, had to do with a night where both of us had worked late, we were both extremely tired, and per usual, it meant we were giggly and silly. We were okay with that. The girls in the room next to ours seldom were.
   We had tried to hurry in our use of the bathroom down the hall. We had tried to get right to getting ready for bed and keeping our story sharing and overall conversation to a minimum. And as I was climbing up to my top bunk, Sandy had stood at the ready to turn off the light.
   The exact same instant that the light went out, there was a loud thump and the bed shook. Before I could even begin to inquire if she was okay, or what had happened, she broke out in giggles. Full body, shake our bunk bed, I couldn't help but join her in, type of giggles.
   Thump, thump, thump, on the wall came from the adjoining room.
   We rolled our eyes, and giggled.
   And giggled some more. And some more.
   THUMP, thump, thump, from the wall.
    I took a d-e-e-p breath and tried to gain control. We'd had quite enough of them reporting us to the RA! Another deep breath. Okay.
   "Sandy, are you alright?"
   "giggle, y-e-a-h", the slashes indicating additional giggles as she said it.
   Giggle, from me. 'Cheryl, you guys have to stop!' I thought to myself. Deep breath. "What happened?" Yes, I fully realize (and realized then) that I should have just left it alone ... But I H-A-D to know!!! Come on.
   "I wanted to see if I could get into bed before the light went out, so I hit the switch and dove at the bed swimming style" giggle, chuckle, giggle.
   I could not help it. Giggle, giggle, giggle.
   THUMP, THUMP, thump, from the wall.
   "Did you make it?" I asked
   "I don't know. chuckle, chuckle. I hit my head on the bed post and saw stars, giggle, giggle, so I don't know if the light was out first, or the stars came first." full laughter followed.
   That was it, we were goners. There was no way we couldn't laugh. And once we really started, it seemed like there was no way we were going to stop either. Even the very loud and clear THUMP!, THUMP!, THUMP! couldn't stop us.
   Then we heard one of them getting out of bed, they made sure their bed rattled against the wall as a scare tactic. Thing was, we were giggling in silliness too much to be scared.
   "Poor Belinda" one of us said. That was our RA's name. We knew they had gone to fetch her to 'straighten us out' yet again.
   "Tap, tap, tap" sounded on our door.
   "Sandy, did you lock the door?"
   Chuckle, laughter, giggle - "No, I was watching you climb up into bed and wondering if I could get in bed before the light went out and never even thought of locking the door."
   Giggle, chuckle, giggle, laughter - from both of us!! We were goner's!
   Finally one of us managed to choke out "come in" and our sweet RA entered the room. Honest, both of us respected and liked her! And thus we really did try to control ourselves and our laughter. But sometimes just getting off an eight hour shift and having to remain totally silent and go straight to bed, was just undo-able! However, the dorm mates in the next room found that to be a sin!
   Belinda reminded us that it was after lights out and quiet time. We probably would have fared better if she had left out the lights out part.
   She ever so lovingly reiterated how she knew that working late and then having to be extremely quiet was hard (reiterated, because she'd said the same to us on prior occasions). 
   And we really were trying to stop, for her sake. We didn't want "The thumpers" (as we referred to them) getting any more on her case. But often, once you get a really good case of the giggles, well ... see .... um mm .... yeah. giggle, giggle.
   Then poor sweet Belinda inquired just what it was that had set us off so bad. She shouldn't have. Really she shouldn't have. But she had, so we had to tell her. But do you think we could stop giggling then? Oh no. Not a chance. And we learned just how contagious giggling can be, because Belinda joined us in it. o;-p
   We knew that she had asked thinking that it couldn't be anything really that funny, that we were just giggling so bad due to how tired we were. She learned differently!
   "The thumpers" were NOT amused!!! One of them was now standing in our door way. Poor Belinda!! She soon got control of her self, and even inquired if it would help if one of us moved our mattress into her room for the night. And her tone of voice totally showed that she was not irked at us, just trying to keep dorm peace.
   Her compassion helped us to settle down. Well, for the most part.We were at the least able to tone the giggles down to whisper volume. Yes, it is possible. We actually had the technique perfected by the end of that semester. ;-p
   In the morning Sandy had a big ole knot on her head. And every time that one of our dorm mates would ask what had been so funny last night, or somebody on campus would ask how she had gotten the bump on her head, we'd start giggling. They really weren't sure about us, and we were just fine with that! :-D


   So what did I do that brought that memory to mind?  I knew you'd ask. Can we just leave it?   Of course not.

   Um mmm o:-) I tried to flip the light switch in my bedroom on and off so fast that the light would only come on a little bit ..... Hey, the bright light hurts my eyes and my head ...

   No, it didn't work. But it did give me this memory, and the giggles. I finally gave in and got up to type this up so that my giggling didn't penetrate into any of "the boys" rooms. Rascal just keeps wandering in and looking up at me all perplexed. "Why are you up at this hour and giggling of all things?!" his looks seem to be asking. I better not tell him. I might never stop .....