rini and i celebrate 7 years together today! (pretty impressive, that we could fit 7 years together into one day!)

plus other jokes!

dear friends, family, fans, fellow folks,

i am grateful you’re here!
thank you for being here and you!
you are the best!

today is the 7th anniversary of my meeting my wonderful girlfriend Rini.
since this is the day on which we commemorate the start of our relationship and our life together, here are some silly jokes to celebrate! (we might celebrate in other ways also, but let’s start with jokes here and now!)

A) A ain’t for angry:

“i’m happy + hungry… hangry!”
— my girlfriend’s 11-year-old sibling

out of the mouths of babes! that’s where these words came from. and INTO the mouths of babes. that’s where the food goes.

i love a good repurposing of words that already exist. why not get more use out of them? and if we can also subvert the previously existing meaning to get something that is also true, why not!

you may of course be familiar with the portmanteau “hangry,” standardly representing “hungry + angry.” (you may be less familiar with my additions to the lexicon of “thIRKEDsty” and “tIRATEd,” which stand for “so thirsty that you’re irked” and “so tired that you’re irate.”)

but i love that this child, this member of my family now, was once so hungry that he was… HAPPY! and happy + hungry does indeed = hangry, by the math of letters that i’m familiar with, for sure. (re: the math of letters, i’m still trying to figure out a word that means “the alphabet” but for numbers. the numeralphabet? okay, we got it!)

B) B is for gibberish:

“language is just gibberish that we agree upon”
— my girlfriend’s 13-year-old sibling

another banger from this family!
i couldn’t have said it better myself!
though i probably could say it EQUAL myself, if i just said the same thing, which is basically what i’m doing.

language IS just gibberish that we agree upon.
the definition of gibberish is of course “meaningless speech,” and the word “gibberish” itself WAS gibberish before we agreed on its meaning as meaningless.

is this all gibberish? then i think i’ve proven my point, demonstrating that while i couldn’t have said it BETTER myself, i may have said it WORSE myself.
i hope you agree with this gibberish!

C) C is for recipe:

"it's like a recipe for numbers"
— my girlfriend herself, trying to come up with the word "equation" once (and i think coming up with something even better!)

finally, the headliner of the family (in my eyes), Rini herself makes an appearance here! an equation IS like a recipe for numbers. for example start with two 2s, mix in a + sign, and you end up with a delicious 4!

or start with one me, add one Rini, and end up with the happiest, most fulfilling 7 years of my life, and counting! we’ve got infinite numberletters left in this numeralphabet, and i’m super grateful it’s all happening. thank you for receiving!

and that’s all of the silliness for today (maybe)! now, some questions for you:

1) how are you doing? what is new and good? how are you feeling?
2) are there children or adults in YOUR life who say funny/profound things?
3) do YOU have an idea of what we could call the alphabet of numbers?
4) have you made up any other words that you’d like to share?
5) how are you doing NOW?

for some future silliness, here are some shows i’ll be doing soon!:
— July 1: Holiday Inn in Grantville, PA!
— July 6-8: Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse in Arlington, VA!
— July 12-15: Acme Comedy Co. in Minneapolis, MN!
— August 2-28: ImPerfect at the Edinburgh Fringe Fest in Scotland!
PS the show ImPerfect is all about my relationship with Rini, so it’s actually the Perfect show to talk about today! (and also every day!)

and that’s all for today!
thank you so much for being here!
thank you again for celebrating last week’s collaboration with Ramin Nazer, our new book “HEART BRAIN ART TRAIN” that i hope you get the chance to check out whenever you wish! and thank you of course for celebrating THIS week’s collaboration with Rini, our now 7-year-long relationship!
thanks so much for being a part of all of this!
much love to you/yours/all!

Photo by Bonnie Kaplan (my mom!)