Karen and the Flying Squirrel

Last night, I had dinner with three girlfriends.  Three of us are in our mid-40s, one of us is in the late 50s.  Now, out of the 4 of us, who do you think is the most sprightly and energetic?  Well, if you guessed the 57 year-old, you are correct!  Karen is a little spitfire!  She has amazing passion and energy, which impresses me immensely.

During our dinner conversation (which entails the four of us jumping rapidly from one topic to the next), Karen starts talking about this flying squirrel and how beautiful it was and how she just loves it.  She said her elderly uncle (he is in his late 80s), who lives in a century home, had caught the flying squirrel in a rat trap.  He said he heard all of this noise up in the rafters and it ended up being a flying squirrel that was running around dragging this rat trap behind him.  Here is a snippet of our conversation:

Karen: This little squirrel is SO beautiful (she showed us a close up picture of its little face).  I wanted to find a mom that home schools her kids to see if she wanted it. In the meantime, I had it in my trunk because the weather was below freezing but when the weather warmed up, I had to put it in my freezer.

Me: Wait, what?!  Karen, is this squirrel DEAD?!

Karen: Well of course it's dead!

My two other friends and I really started dying of laughter at this point.  We ALL had thought she was talking about an ALIVE squirrel whom she wanted to give as a pet to a mom that home-schooled.  But no, she wanted to give this beautiful little creature that she adored (and that just so happened to be dead), to a mom that home-schooled so it could be dissected!!!  The even crazier part is that Karen did end up finding a mom that home-schooled that was just as excited as she was to have this beautiful, dead, little squirrel.

Karen then proceeded to tell us how she found a beautiful fox on the side of the road when she was in her 30s.  She was all dressed up and wearing high-heeled boots but she pulled over when she saw the fox.  She said that she went up to it and took off her boot to poke it to make sure it wasn't still alive.  The last thing she wanted was to go and pick it up by the tail and find out it was merely stunned and not dead and have it attack her.  She ended up taking it home to her mom's freezer; she really wanted to make a hat out of this beautiful fox.  Alas, the years went by and her mom eventually threw it out since Karen never did get around to making that fox hat.

The final story of the night from Karen had us rolling with laughter again.  Staying on her road-kill theme, (Road-kill Queen is what my other friend called her after these stories), she told us about a deer. This was many years ago and she had her young daughter in the front seat of her Ford Granada.  She was driving through a park and saw a police officer on the side of the road with a dead deer.  Karen asked if she could have it.  The officer said yes, but since he was in uniform he could not help Karen load it into her car.  Karen grabbed a bag from the car to put it over the deer's head so her daughter didn't see it.  Then she dragged the deer to her car.  She realized quickly that she was not going to be able to lift it into her trunk, so she crawled into the back seat and pulled the deer into her car that way.

You have to picture Karen to truly get an idea of how ludicrous this scenario is: Karen is 5'2" and weighs 95 pounds.  She is a peanut.  I am sure the deer was a lot bigger and heavier than her.  And yet there she was, in her 20's, with a young daughter in the front seat, pulling this freshly dead deer into her back seat.  The image of her doing this will always bring a smile to my face.

Karen is literally the toughest woman I know (and this, obviously, is not at all due to her size).  She has no fear, she is all strength.  She feels strongly about her convictions, she unapologetically voices her opinion and lives her life.  I admire her strength both literally and figuratively.  And above all, she truly is a good person.

To Karen - I am thankful our paths crossed at work many years ago and I have the pleasure of being your friend.

Laughingly and Lovingly Yours,
SG

Motivational Moment:

We all go through ups and downs in our life.  The trick is to keep going through the tough times and know, as our mothers and grand-mothers have always said: "This too shall pass."

I wasn't in the mood to go out last night.  I would have been fine laying on the couch, wallowing in my misery.  But I am so glad that I pushed through those negative feelings and went out.  I ended up having a night of boisterous laughter - more so than I have had in years.  It's these unexpected gems in life that help us through the rough times.

Wishing you good friends and lots of laughter on your journey of life.  Hugs, SG