Karen’s Place

Wow, I have so much to write about and none of it relates to the other.  This will be another one of my very interesting, all over the place blogs…

Okay, first let’s start with my trip.  We had such a great time, it all went so smoothly.  We flew on Delta and I have to admit I had some concerns; a co-worker had just come back from a vacation a few days earlier flying the same airline with nothing but horror stories.  We actually had pretty good luck.  In fact, on our flight from KC to Cincinnati (where we would only have a 30 min lay-over) we were bumped up about 5 rows allowing us to get off the plane and run to the next gate all that much quicker.  Here’s the cool thing – when we arrived to get our rental car (a very inexpensive $15/day compact car ordered through Priceline), I was trying to make jokes with the agent.  She says do you have your ID?  I said yep, do you need my first born? She says no and gives me a deadpan stare.  I said good cuz I don’t have a first born, but I’ll give you hers (pointing to my friend).  More deadpan stares.  Okay, note to self this ladies having a bad day no more jokes…So she starts calling on the radio for our compact car she gets no response (guess we weren’t the only ones afraid of her that day), she calls for about 5 minutes.  Then finishes the paperwork and tells us where our car is.  We hike the 3 1/2 miles with all our luggage through the parking lot to where our car was parked and realize she has directed us to a 2008 Toyota 4-Runner.  WHAT???  I look at the paperwork again, cuz surely she wrote down the wrong lot number.  I was supposed to get a little Ford or something.  Nope it said my car would be in “B-4” okay that was “B”, 1, 2, 3 holy cow! okay let’s look at the receipt.  Yep, that’s our vehicle all right.  Sweet!  So for 5 days, we got to drive an ‘08 4-Runner for $15 a day.  Our guess, all because that lady was having a bad day.  Might I say it was so much fun to drive too?  Parking however, a completely different story!

We took pictures before we even left the rental car lot, we were so excited!

The rest of the long weekend went as planned.  We visited my friend’s pub Thurs through Saturday night.  We made a LOT of new friends.  Okay, well one new friend and a lot of new acquaintances.  One thing about North Carolina is the people are so friendly.  Our first night at the pub it was so crowded that a gal and her friend asked if they could join us at our table and of course we agreed, and by the end of the night we had probably 6 people there.  I’ve stayed in contact with that gal since I’ve been home and she’s looking forward to me spending my birthday down there.  I think she has my party already planned. 

 Here’s Tricia and me Friday night at the pub

 This is my friend Paddy

As you know from my previous entry, Saturday morning we drove down to South Carolina.  I’d found out from the Chamber of Commerce in Myrtle Beach there was a ranch that had a private beach in which you could ride horses.  How could we pass that up?  It was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  We headed out early in the morning for the two hour drive.  It was just beautiful!  I didn’t realize how many cotton fields there were down there.  Take a look at this -

Our trip ended with a lazy Sunday exploring a little bit of the town of Fayetteville.  Tricia found this really pretty park I wish we had a place like this near my house, I’d be there all the time.

Each time I visit North Carolina, it gets harder and harder to come home.  Not just because of my friends, but as I’ve said before I just feel at home there.  Tricia kept trying to talk me into checking the want ads while I was there.  I think she’s trying to get rid of me.  ha ha.  Seriously though, my company does have an office in Charlotte, if it wouldn’t be so hard for my house to sell right now and if I thought I could transfer I would really consider it.

So Friday night was Halloween.  What better way to celebrate than to watch a live production of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I’m sure I’m dating myself by saying you could find me midnights my entire 15th year at the movie theatre seeing Rocky Horror.  For those who aren’t familiar, it’s too difficult to explain.  I was a little unsure a live performance could do the movie justice or that anyone could hold a candle to Tim Curry as Frank N Furter.  I had nothing to worry about, it was stellar!  The boy who did Tim Curry’s role couldn’t have even been born in the hay day of the movie yet he had the part down pat.  If he continues to pursue acting, he’ll go far I have no doubt.  For those who aren’t familiar, the character is a transvestite and therefore spends the entire movie/play in fishnet hose and high heels.  I have to share what the actor put in his bio listed in the program:

Doogin Brown (Frank-N-Furter)  I have a purpose now – a quest of sorts.  When this show concludes, I will sell my worldly possessions, buy a sturdy iron rod, and scour the globe until I find the man who invented high heels.  I will walk up to him and say, “I am a harbinger of karmic retribution,” and then I will beat that man with my iron rod to within an inch of his life to exact a karmic penance for every blister, every sprained ankle and twisted knee of every person who has ever had to wear a pair of high heels.  And when this colossal, earth-shaking epic beatdown has run its course, I will drop the iron rod and I will say, “Now you understand our pain.”  Doogin has worked for a bunch of theaters in Kansas City; Eubank Productions is one of his favorites.

When I read that, I thought you know? Men love a woman in high heels, maybe they aught to wear them for a while like this young man and they’ll feel differently.

Yesterday I took my Goddaughter to see Broadway’s Lion King which is touring through here.  The Lion King was and still is her very favorite Disney movie even though we had an arrangement that she wasn’t to get any more birthday or Christmas presents until she is 16 years old (because of the cruise we went on a couple years ago), I had to get tickets.  This show deserved every single Tony award it has received, if you have the opportunity to see it you must, and if possible get get seats in the orchestra level.  There are many times during the show where the characters come down through the isles singing and dancing.  I just can’t put into words how amazing it really was.  At the end the man who played zazu stopped and told everyone they were selling posters autographed by the entire cast with all the money going to the Red Cross, of course we had to get one!  Problem was we weren’t sure where they were.  Sammi headed downstairs while I waited upstairs in line at the merchandise booth.  She came back after about 10 minutes with poster in hand, I jumped out of line to join her where she informed me she received her signed poster from none other than the man who played Timon and also got to meet Simba and a few others.  I was so happy for her, she was over the moon!  You guys know how I am with Youtube clips, here’s a clip from The Tony awards and The Lion King.  It’s not the same cast we had, but you get the idea of the costumes.  Take note of the gigantic elephant, that’s what walked right past us.  Truly awesome!

I’m back from my vacation…until I can sit down and write, here’s a little video showing our day trip to South Carolina.  It was everything I wanted it to be.
I have to say though, my Aunt was 110% correct, it took me 3 days to be able to move again!  It was all worth it though. 

Okay, just have to drop a note to share…I just booked a two (hopefully two and a half) hour horseback ride on the beach in South Carolina. I hope it lives up to everything I want it to be.

Nancy, I am SO going to take you with me one day! No questions asked! If it weren’t for you letting me ride Roxy when I was little I would never have developed a love for horses.

I’ll post some pictures Sunday.

My friend Tricia and I are headed to North Carolina very soon. Since we are going to be there for several days/nights we want to spend one of our days out on the coast. I haven’t shared this thought with her yet, but I’d really like to go to South Carolina since I haven’t been there yet. Google maps says it about 2 or 2 and a half ours from where we’ll be. That’s to Myrtle Beach that is, I’m concerned since it’s off season there won’t really be anything to do. I hope I’m wrong. If anything, it’ll be time staring at the Ocean, anytime gazing at that blue water is never time wasted in my book! Ahhh, I’m counting the hours/days/weeks!

Wow I really haven’t written much this summer, I suppose that’s because really there hasn’t been much new going on.

Let’s see, I really hate my new job.  That sucks!  So far the director of my department has yet to come through on any of the promises he made me while recruiting me for the position.  I’m stuck there until November, then I can transfer out-granted there is/are positions available within the office that tickle my fancy.  I’m still doing side work for my old department, I know I should dump it all back on my old boss but we are going through an extremely important audit and I just can’t do that to her.  The only upside to the job, other than actually having one (I always remind myself it could be worse, I may be jobless) is that I get to work from home on Thursdays.  That is so nice.  We’re working on getting to be able to work from home two days a week, which would be so nice.

I really haven’t done anything new this summer.  I’m going back to North Carolina in a few weeks that will be so fun.  This time I’m not going to fly solo (literally and figuratively); I’m taking my friend Tricia with me.  Tricia is a single mom to four daughters and hasn’t had a vacation since before her oldest, who is 16 years old was born.  I think she may be looking forward to more than me if that’s possible.  Tricia works for the school district, so we had to plan this little vacation for when the kids were out of school, needless to say our options were very limited.  Luck was really in our favor as round-trip airline tickets were barely $200 and that was only booking like six weeks in advance.  Yay!  Then I found out that was my friend Paddy’s birthday weekend, his 40th birthday.  How cool is that?  We’ve been invited to a big blow out at his pub.  Then there’s my friend Bill, Paddy’s music partner; Bill is the concertmaster for the symphony.  Opening night of the symphony will take place while we’re there and we’ve been invited to that as well.  I’ve only heard Bill’s pub music and on a rare occasion, one or two classical pieces; it will be great to see an entire performance – although I do have a fear of falling asleep.  I will for sure be upping my caffeine intake prior to the concert.

So we’ll be there for a five day weekend and with Fayetteville not being far from the coast, we for sure have a trip to the beach planned.  I realize we can’t go swimming in October, but it will be a great drive (with the help of my trusty GPS) and no matter what anytime you get to see the ocean it’s a good day.

Let’s see anything else new??  Tuesday was beautiful outside.  When I got home from work I let the dog out and she was as frisky as a puppy, she just wanted to play and play.  How could I not pack her up in the car and take her to the lake for a romp and swim.  I’m so lucky I can take her off leash wherever we go she has so much fun and can swim wherever she wants without being tied to a leash.  You know I had to take some pictures:

I love this picture, I think she’s completely airborne!

She climbed down a pretty steep cliff to get here, she was determined!

She’s got a strange look on her face, but really she was all smiles!

One last thought, remember October is breast cancer awareness month.  Coming from someone who lost a Grandmother to breast cancer, please remember to have your mammograms, also don’t forget if you’re girls are even a little dense you should ask your doctor if a sonogram may be in order instead.

****Warning this is gonna be a long one folks, I’m rambling today! ****

As I sit here on what is supposed to be the last weekend of summer, I’ve been thinking back on the past 8 months.  You know, even though the year has been somewhat tumultuous in ways, all in all I really think it has been one of the best years (thus far) I’ve had in a very long time.

As everyone is aware of by now, the personal changes I decided to make in my life made all the difference I do think.  It’s funny I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in North Carolina.  My friend is Irish, born and raised.  He was telling me when he was young his Mom used to tell him this story and he never knew what it meant until he was an adult.  I knew as soon as he was finished I would never remember it, but I sure wish I had.  I know it involved two cats and one that chased his tail all the time.  Anyway, the moral of the story was that you will never find happiness as long as you are chasing.  However, once you stop and start leading your life for you, happiness will find you.  I found it ironic he chose that story to tell me, because that’s just what I did.  I stopped everything I was doing.  I stopped working so hard at trying to control every aspect of my life and decided to just do what I wanted.  As it turns out I’m a much happier person and in turn so are those around me.  He said he began doing that a couple of years ago himself and found the same results.

So this year, I’ve been lucky enough to take my trip out East, I toured the USS Theodore Roosevelt where I was able to see my first boyfriend and good friend the Navy Chief and catch up with my old friends in North Carolina.  I’ve reconnected with my friend Kim.  I had a great albeit much too short romance with my army man, and I’ve been spending some great quality time with my oldest friend Tricia.  All this isn’t anything nobody doesn’t already know, so I’m not really sure why I’m repeating it for like the 100th time.  Probably because I’m exhausted and not really thinking straight… ha!

About six weeks ago my friend Laura and I went to a club that has live music almost every night.  We were not familiar with the band playing, but were pleasantly surprised.  After the second break or so, the guitarist, Shawn came over to our table and started chatting us up.  He was an extremely nice guy.  I’m sure at this point if I were to rave about his talent you would just assume I was being bias, but I’m not.  This guy can play like you wouldn’t believe!  Truly it blew me away.  So he talked to us on that break, and then came back during each subsequent break.  Each time he talked more and more about this other band he was in; a country band.  It was pretty clear he liked the country band much more than the one he was playing with this night.  So we all visited a while after the show was over with promises to ‘friend’ each other on myspace (you know that’s what you do now days - friend each other on myspace! ha ha). 

So a couple weeks later, I saw on his myspace that his country band (I wrote briefly about this band in a previous post) was playing on a night I could go and got my girls together and we drove out to see them.  I tell you what, he wasn’t kidding when he said that group was much different.  These guys had so much energy, got the crowd going and wow could they play!!  You can tell the guys are good friends in real life as well.  In fact Shawn and the lead singer, Chan are best friends.  I think that makes all the difference in the music.  I was called out as soon as we walked in the place and on the first break Shawn brought the guys over to meet my friends and me.  They sat and visited with us on many of the breaks and we were able to learn quite a bit about them.  Oddly, Chan was stationed at the same army post as my army man and was aquatinted with him…small small world.  So, we’ve been able to see them a couple of more times since then, the last time being Saturday night.  They had a great gig Saturday night.  Kansas City has a new entertainment district in our downtown area, called the Power and Light District.  Their gig was at one of the clubs down there called PBR Big Sky Bar.  Usually we get there when they are a good hour or so into their show, but this time we wanted to get there from the beginning.  We didn’t quite make that goal, but we were close.  None of us had been down to the P & L District before and might I say, we absolutely LOVED it!!!!!  Oh my gosh!!!  It was awesome!!!  It’s about time Kansas City did something as kick ass as this!!  We can’t wait until we can go down there again and just go from place to place.  It reminded me a lot of Vegas, it had that feeling where you were outside, but you didn’t feel like you were outside.  If you’ve been there, you know what I mean.  We were a little concerned about parking, we all heard horror stories about parking.  Then we saw the magic sign:  “VALET PARKING” *ding ding ding ding* worry over!  sweet!  Of course it cost, but with three of us splitting it, the cost was next to nothing.  Honestly, they could have really ripped us off with the cost of valet parking, but really $6 not bad at all.  I hope they don’t raise it after everyone gets used to using it.

We pay (again this was even less expensive than I’ve paid in the burbs to get into a club), get our hand stamped and head into the bar.  The guys are already playing.  We lead singer spots me right away and says ‘ahhh the posse’s here!!!’  Now is it a good thing or a bad thing to be recognized that quickly?  I’m not sure?  ha! naw it’s a good thing, he’s a sweetie.  The first thing we noticed about this joint was there were absolutely NO tables, or seats of any kind anywhere near the stage.  What the heck?  The second thing we noticed was the mechanical bull in the middle of the room.  Okay, that’s pretty cool I’m not sure if I’d seen one of those in person before.  The guys play wireless which allows them a lot more freedom than a lot of other bands.  Here’s a good example, when the third set started everyone wondered where Shawn was, Chan and Danny (the drummer) were there, but Shawn was nowhere to be found.  Then all of a sudden we could hear him.  This is where he was:

How fun! 

One thing my friends and I noticed about the people in this bar is that they seemed to be younger than us.  At first we thought we were going to be quite a bit out of place.  This didn’t seem to bother them.  They were a lot of fun to dance with.  In fact, one guy (who I should probably call a kid, but my ego won’t allow me to) came up with his friend and danced with my friend Kim and me. 

***oh at this point I should probably point out that I was barefoot.  To me shoes are only worn to get me in the door.  They come off probably 10 minutes after I get there.  Everyone tells me I’m going to get glass in my foot, or something more horrible.  I know, I know but I hate shoes - it’s a risk I take.

Okay, so this guy is dancing with me and he leans in and says “I promise I don’t want anything from you, I just want to tell you that you are SO pretty!  Then he points, from your feet to your face, you are SO pretty!”  Whoa!  I just said thank you!  Now what the heck is wrong with men of my generation being able to be open and honest like that?  Okay, maybe men of my generation don’t think I’m SO pretty.  ha ha.

We also stepped outside for some air where the three of us were immediately hit on by two college boys from Warrensburg.  Now that was fun.  One was sober, clearly thank goodness the DD, the other drunk off his butt!  He was hilarious!  His sober friend was so embarrassed of him, but the three of us just found it funny because at some point in our lives we’ve all been either that sober one, or that drunken one.  The drunken one offered to have us come back to their place the next day for some ’shrooms’.  We had to explain later to my friend Tricia these were psychedelic mushrooms, not the stuffed kind.  As soon as the invitation left drunk guys mouth, sober guy was all “NOOOOO!!!!, dude noooo!!!!”  It’s a good thing we’re cool people.  It’s a good thing Kim is a cool person - Her brother is a cop.  ha!

So the night ended and after standing for over five hours; since there were no tables or seats we were so thankful for the valet parking.

Final thoughts - yeah as if I haven’t had enough already?  As always, thanks Tricia and Kim for being posse!  Laura we missed you while you were out on sick leave.

Everyone if you’re anywhere near Kansas City, or Centralia, MO check this band out - they are Hazzard County

My Goddaughter showed this to me last night.  It is so funny!!

This past Saturday was Girl’s Night Out.  My friends have husband’s and/or kids and it’s important for them to be able to get out of the house to cut loose and release some stress.  The players in the party were, Kim - who basically organized the entire night.  Kim has been my friend since the day I walked into band class in the seventh grade.  Tricia - who drove about 45 minutes in from out of town to be with us.  Tricia - has been my friend since the day I walked into my fifth grade classroom, and Laura - Laura I honestly thought was going to back out at the last minute and am SO glad she didn’t.  I think she’s glad she didn’t too.  Laura - has been my friend since almost the first day of choir class in the 10th grade.  As you can tell, three of my oldest (in time not age) and closest friends.

We started out meeting a friend and co-worker of Kim’s for dinner.  She was originally supposed to be with us for the entire night, but at the last minute couldn’t continue past dinner.  I’m sure she will regret it!  As you know by now, all roads for Kim and I lead to our regular pub.  Laura and Tricia had not yet been able to experience it, so we after dinner the four of us stopped by for a couple of hours.  Our ultimate goal for the evening was to go watch a favorite local band of ours.  We’ve become acquainted with the a couple of the band members and like to support them whenever possible.  Not to mention, the music is awesome!  Anyway, so first we stopped off at our regular haunt.  Laura and Tricia were able to meet Sweetie who of course greeted us warmly.  Sweetie is usually pretty amused by Kim and I, but this night he was even more so.  We entertained him with stories of our childhood and adolescence.  I was at an extreme disadvantage, because I was the common thread between all of us.  Therefore, the other three had stories about me the others hadn’t heard.  Oh the tales were flying!  It was fun though.

We had to leave, and after driving much further than I thought we were going to have to, we landed at Tanner’s in Denver Colorado.  Okay, it wasn’t really Denver but it sure felt like it!  The guys had been playing for an hour or so, but let’s say the party didn’t start until we got there!  Okay, the party didn’t start until KIM got there!  ha!  Really though, no one can get a place dancing like the two of us.  It used to be I was worried about what people thought of me if I were to get up and dance.  Now I’m too old to care.  I love to dance, if I stink at it who cares?  All that matters is that I’m having fun.  So Kim and I begin to dance and others soon follow.  The night was great.  This will be a monthly event.  I’m not sure they can top this, but I’m sure we’ll try.  Here are some pictures:

Me, Laura, Kim and Tricia - We almost had to hog tie Laura to get her picture taken

I do almost always get what I want though!  ha ha ha ha ha

 
Tricia and Me - If I were really mean, I’d post another picture of us together when we were 10 yrs old!

 
Kim and Me - Yes her hair color is natural!  Really!

Here’s the guys - They say they’re country, but I’ve never heard a country band play
AC/DC like these guys!

Last night I went to see a musical at one of our many local theatres.  It was Always Patsy Cline  and it was outstanding!  I was a little concerned it would be a little over the top or that the lead wouldn’t do Patsy’s voice justice, but I was not disappointed.  Granted, no one since the day she died in 1963 has been able to match that pure voice of her’s but this actor made the part her own and did great.  Could you imagine having a job where you got to sing Patsy songs all night every night?  That would be awesome!  Not just Patsy songs, but there was some Kitty Wells thrown in and well numerous others from the early and late ’60’s; everything I was raised on.

The show was based on a true story of Patsy’s friendship with a fan (Louise) from Houston who befriended Patsy in a Honky-tonk in Texas in 1961 and remained friends with her until Patsy’s death in 1963.  You know, in today’s age of entourages and posse’s and agents and management, I wonder if that could even happen anymore? Could an average fan become friends with a celebrity?  Hummm, I wonder?  In this case it started because Patsy walked into that bar all alone prior to doing her show and Louise approached her.  Partially because she loved her music but also because she looked lonely.  Patsy didn’t blow her off go wait in her dressing room like I believe stars of today would.  She sat down at Louise’s table and had some beers with her.  What a crazy idea.   

Anyway, it was a fun night of music.  My friend and I had to do our best NOT to sing out loud to all the songs.  It was for the sake of the people around us really.  Oh who of which were at least 20 years older than us.  I tell you what people our age and younger just do not appreciate good music any more… tisk tisk tisk.

I was with my friend Kim, so after the show we headed for our normal hang out.  I’m not going to name it for fear that any stories told about this establishment could incriminate the staff and also our friend.  It seems when she and I are together all roads lead to this location.  Not at all a bad thing, it’s a pretty cool place.  We’ve made pretty good friends with the bartender.  I know a lot of people say that?  However, in our case it’s true.

We first went there early this summer, it was packed.  I met Kim and one of her work friends there for a night of dancing.  I’m pretty out going, but Kim even more so.  By the end of the night she was trying to broker a phone number exchange between this cute little barely 21 year old and this VERY hot our age bartender.  It didn’t go so well, but the bartender thanked her for her efforts.  The next time we stopped in he was working and immediately recognized us (YES it had been several weeks, we aren’t that much of a lush!).  It was a slow night and he talked to us the entire night.  We still didn’t know his name so to us it was sweetie.  He really didn’t seem to mind.  It was kind of fun being on the other end of the name for a change though.  I could say “Hey Sweetie?” and he would look up from the other end of the bar and see if I needed anything…Nice!   Kim and I visited with him then went on to dance for the rest of the night, but we still checked in on him to make sure he was working.  See, I was running a tab and I wanted to make sure HE would get my tip and not one of the other bartenders.  Time came to tab out and Kim and I looked at our bills and it was a fraction of what it should have been.  I mean a fraction!  I looked up at him, and questioned him on it and he just shrugged his shoulders and said ‘hey! I just punch in what you guys order, the register does the rest’.  yeah right sweetie.  okay!  Needless to say, he got big tips from both of us.

Sweetie was lucky enough to be on the receiving end of my boo-hoo fest when my military man left.  Lucky him!  But between him and Kim I was laughing like crazy by the end of the night.  Then we stopped in about three weeks ago and he wasn’t there, talk about boring!  I think we still danced and everything, but even the waitresses didn’t seem to be having a good time; interesting…

Here’s just a taste of Ms. Patsy Cline thanks to youtube:

Transcript of a text message conversation I had with my soon to be 14 year old Goddaughter tonight:

Me:  I just learned a line dance at a club. lol and I was really good!

Her:  Wat dance-

Me:  I don’t know-I went to the right, went to the left, kicked some.  lol are u proud of me or mortified? (ed note: of course I knew what dance it was, but it’s so much fun playing with her!)

Her: OMG! The cupid shuffle! Did u walk it out?

Me:  YES! I walked it out! Ha! So are u proud of me?

Her:  OMG! lol i’m proud and completely um…idk lol

Me:  Yeah I know I just had to share it with you.

First.  I absolutely love this girl the older she gets.  When she was an infant I didn’t think I would love her more at any other age.  Same for every single stage since.  But her being a teenager has been so much fun.  Probably because I’m still single and ‘out there’ in the world so to speak and our generational paths are crossing. 

Second.  Look at the direction our English language is headed with this text message revolution.  Not only do these kids type like this, but they speak like that.  You know that old cell phone commercial; I think it’s for a cell phone, where the whole family is talking in acronyms?  Yeah, that’s not so far off the mark.  They really do say ‘idk’ for I don’t know.  They really do say ‘OMG’ for Oh my God (that one doesn’t bother me as much).  However, if I ever start to hear ‘lol’ instead of true laughter, it will all be over!