Katherine posted a story on her blog today that has had me giggling to myself to the point that Maddie asked me what was so funny. To be honest, there is a strong possiblity that she is concerned I have totally lost my marbles, seeing that Grandma left on Sunday and it's been real life for us around here for two days now. Mama's inexplicable giggling might seem like a sign of impending... something.
Anyway, I'm here to verify that Katherine isn't exaggerating about the strange noises that come out of Willis Girls when startled. Her phonetic attempts at expressing these noises ("WHAAAAp!" and "WhuuAH!") are good, but don't fully capture the complete effect. We have the ability to far and away out-startle ANYONE who startles us. And yes, it does happen everywhere—movie theaters (Matt nearly died of embarrassment in Castaway during a particularly tense scene in which Tom Hanks cut his foot on coral and I WhuuAHHH-ed LOUDLY in the theater), in places of employment, especially when someone would open a door on the other side of a door I was opening at precisely the same moment, and occasionally, in direct response to complete strangers. When I was teaching in Montana I often left for school before 6:00 am to tackle my list of things to do before my 7:00 am class would start; one fateful morning in the middle of the winter I happened to catch the paper boy coming around the corner of the house at about 5:45 am. I'm not sure who shrieked like a 4 year old girl more loudly—me or him. I did not have the presence of mind to blurt out how much he scared the crap out of me, so there was no real closure to the scene. I've always wondered how much damage I did to that poor kid. And then I giggle some more.
