Dear Karen:

My wonderful, kind, clean, funny, positive thinking, beautiful, round (It’s okay, we both admitted that we were round) friend went to heaven recently because of Covid. My devastation is real and I have to think back to the conversation we had not too awfully long ago when we talked about not wanting to live to be really old. I must have missed the small point that really old was not 53.

Karen loved it when I referenced her in my blogs, even if it were just the two of us and an inside joke. So in honor of Karen, here are some of my favorite memories:

• I would tell her that I was going to lick the handrails along the Las Vegas Strip. She would freak out and pull out her hand sanitizer (for her, not me)
• Karen would dog sit for people. Some had camera’s in the home. I would recommend lots of “fun” things for her to do for the camera. She would be offended and then we would laugh and laugh.
• We both called her friends, “Church people.”
• We would get so excited to go to Costco’s.
• We loved to go to afternoon movies. Except she would never eat popcorn or anything with seeds. So I would throw popcorn at her to catch and eat. (She missed).
• She came to visit me in Ohio and thought the cicadas in the trees were aliens coming to eat us.
• She was so fun to tease. Because she never took it seriously and would play the part. Takes a really good friend to put up with that shit.
• Our BFF song was “Poker Face.” Except she never really knew what song it was. (She did know it was ours when it came on though)
• We could be as obscene as we wanted (well, okay. I was the obscene one) but it takes a REALLY super friend to be that comfy while talking so lewdly. And I will NEVER forget the memory at the XXX-rated store in Vegas. (The clerk told Karen it probably would not be a good idea for us to go into the movie part)
• She would make best friends with whatever wait person we had at a restaurant.
• I admired her for deciding to move to Seattle from Vegas. Packed up her car and just did it. Even if it did only last a few months. What an adventurous thing to do.
• We would walk the halls of the casinos in Vegas for exercise and talk about the vagina shapes on the carpet. Or go behind a desk like we worked there giving out bogus information (We were asked twice to leave).
• Her boss once asked her where the dictionary was. Not skipping a beat, she replied, Dictionary.com
• I would always tell her she had to tell the story in less than 15 seconds. It got the the point where she would always say “Well, to make a long story short,” and then took a long time to tell it anyways. Damn I miss that.
• She loved my two kids as much as her own. And vice-versa.

Rest in peace, dear Karen. May heaven give you everything you deserve and didn’t get while you were on this earth.

Love, Lori