The Misadventures of.....the Travelling Paper

So it seems I am destined in my life to witness strange phenomenons. Although this one does not top the travelling plate, it does deserve a spot in the "misadventures of......" book. So today my sister and I are driving along and we come to the last major intersection before a stretch of freeway. As we approach, we see blue everywhere. My sister asks "What's all the blue stuff?". I could only see it in the snow and so I assumed that maybe it was blue food coloring that the city was using to mark sections of the boulevard that needed something done to them....don't ask me what.....but something. These things just enter my mind.....but do you know what I mean? You know, the stuff that they use to dye snow sculptures, if any of you have ever seen them. Anyways.....as we got nearer to the intersection we saw that it was a bunch of papers. We figured they were advertisements of some sort and my sister said "someone must have done that on purpose" Although that would have been a semi-smart idea, that was not the case. As we pulled to a stop we saw that a full package of blue 81/2 x 11 paper had been dropped in one of the lanes and it was all blank. It was one of those standard size packages that you would get from Weyerhauser or something. It was, like the plate, completely random and it was the only package around. The light turned green as we laughed about the paper blowing around. We were headed towards the university and said that it would likely eventually end up there....and sure enough....when we got to the first entrance onto the university, one lone piece of paper was floating through the intersection.....brave little piece of paper it was.......and it was not lying flat on the ground....no, no, it was floundering, just like the brave paper plate. I'm telling you, it is the month of the paper.....they are rising up and we could very soon have a rebellion on our hands.....be careful......be very careful.....

Another year older

I'd like to take the time to personally thank everyone who took the time to make Karen Gets Older 2006 a success. It was one of the best birthdays I've had in awhile, despite the fact that I am getting older. The actual day of my birthday sucked which seems to be the general trend, but the day 2 days before and the day 2 days after were awesome. Two days before my roomates made me a wonderful birthday supper. I knew that was going to be happening. What I didn't know is that they were going to invite a few more people over. I conveniently decided to have a nap before supper. This also seems to be becoming a trend for me when people are trying to plan some sort of surprise for my birthday. They're all just lucky I'm a heavy sleeper. Anyways, I woke up to 4 people singing me a, er, beautifully in-tune (*cough* *cough*) version of Happy Birthday. Good thing I was still wearing semi-nice/presentable clothing when I went ot sleep because I also have a habit of looking like roadkill after I wake up. Anyways....so we had a very wonderful supper and I opened some of my presents. Then we were just sitting around in the living room and I knew something was up by the way my sister and one of my friends were non-verbally communicating. Next thing I know, they're trying to blindfold me and handcuff me. I put up a fight cause that's what I do and then I thought I'd let them have their fun. I'd like to say the others saw the worst end of the fight, but I think my glasses took the brunt of the whole ordeal. (This was indeed confirmed later on when I unsuccessfully tried to bend them back into shape and had to take them in to be adjusted and the lady just said "yeah....wow....they really are out of shape."). Anyways....back to the story. So I was handcuffed and blindfolded, put into a car (all professional like because one of my friends has made a few arrests in her time) and taken to a local arcade to play one of my favourite games.....Dance Dance Revolution....Yah baby! Apparently on the way I had some cute guy enthusiastically waving at me because I was waving my hands around in the air and trying to make people see the travesty of what was going on. I was eventually uncuffed and the worker at the arcade asked me what I had done to deserve all of this. I simply said that I was born. I know.....its a cruel world. But I did have a lot of fun.....I sweated up a storm with my friends playing DDR and we also found the most awesome racing game complete with surround sound and jolts to your seat when you hit something. It was awesome.

So then two days after my b-day I had my own self-organized birthday party. It was pretty low-key and we just sat around eating and playing games. There was a very good mix of people there and it was a lot of fun. One of my friends whom I haven't seen since summer showed up and made my night. Another major highlight was going to the park. After about 1/2 the people had left, the rest of us were sitting around reminiscing about the good ol' days when we used to go swinging a lot in the park......and yes.....for those of you who may have heard the modern use of the term "swinging", I do mean swinging on a swing set.....that is all. So anyways...about 7 of us went to the park and went swinging. I am now sporting a bruise on my left hip in the shape of the hook that hooks the chain to the swing, because as always the Shantz thunder thighs were too freakin' big to fit nicely in the swing, but I still had a blast. There was also lots of tackling, pushing in the snow etc and even though I was taken down a few times, there are no bruises to show (that I know of anyways). Just from the stupid swing......

So once again, thank you to all who made Karen Gets Older 2006 a success. Without you great birthday parties could not happen. You know who you all are and you all rock my world. I hope to see you out next year again!

The Misadventures of the Travelling Plate

So last night I saw the most random thing......my friend and I were driving along the road like you do when you are on a road and we saw this skinny white thing "standing up" on the road. At first I thought it was some kind of gopher or something but when we got closer we saw that it was a paper plate just rolling along the middle of the road. We thought that was a little strange and so we stopped (we were on a service road that wasn't that busy) and I opened my driver's door because it was coming up on my side. I couldn't see it and then my friend said it had rolled past me already. Sure enough, it was rolling towards the intersection. It went into the intersection, was run over by a truck (it went in between the wheels, it wasn't flattened) and then got up and kept rolling. It was hit the same way by a car and kept going. It successfully rolled over the curb and into the parking lot of a nearby gas station. We lost sight of it after that. It has successfully rolled at least 100 metres and was also hit by several cars. It was so random and weird and funny. I guess the wind must've been just right and the plate also had a chunk missing out of it on one edge and we figured that likely had something to do with the aerodynamics of it. That's the first time I had seen anything like that and I don't expect to see it again soon. Its one of those rare moments in life to be treasured.....after all there are not many paper plates that brave or that hearty in this world!