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!