get in the limo: karen!

what's UP, y'all!!! thought you might like a glimpse of what's in the trunk of this stretch cooper... fabric scraps! and you thought it would just be fulla booze.  these pieces of happiness are making their way to sew LA's promaballoona, where tipsy prom princesses will fashion them into corsages.  just in case their dates didn't provide them with flowers, as our next guest's gent so thoughtfully did... 

so far, as amy pointed out in the comments, i've met everyone in this limo in realio life.  how did that happen?! here's an exception to that rule: i first "met" karen of did you make that in her amped up me-made challenge... because wearing a daily me-made wasn't enough, she set the personal goal of taking pictures in the wild, avec strangers, and it was a LAUGH RIOT.  i've been spitting out coffee over her posts ever since, and gnashing my teeth when i missed her stateside not once, but TWICE.  she's got a lovely tale, and it is entitled:

SHOUT ‘YES’!

My prom story is a salutary tale of scheming females and dumb broads. Can you guess which I was at 17 years of age? But I’m getting ahead of myself. Oonaballoona invited me to share a prom story and share it I shall.

I was studying for my A-levels in Sixth Form. Life was about to get heartbreakingly unhappy at university, but I didn’t know that then. I was still swimming merrily in my little pond with a gang of firm friends. I was so innocent, it makes me ache to remember.

Jeremy was in the year above me. I’d been harbouring a massive crush on him ever since we’d gone on the same school trip to France. I should have known from the way he danced with our French tutor that he was as deep as a puddle, but hey – I was young and in love.

Back home, a neighbouring school announced a prom night! Prom events were virtually unheard of in the UK then (we’re talking the last gasps of the Eighties) and the mere suggestion of such an occasion conjured pictures of impossible glamour. 

I didn’t wait for Jeremy to ask me to go; I invited him. I set about losing as much weight as I could, because I’m pathetic that way. I bought a new dress (in hindsight, startlingly unoriginal and way too old for my years), got my hair cut and coloured, and dreamed, dreamed, dreamed of our future romantic evening. The prom was a Valentine’s Prom and my birthday was on Valentine’s Day – a sure fire recipe for the happiest evening of my life. And it nearly was the happiest evening of my life. Until the phone call came through…

Jeremy had an ex-girlfriend. She was still in love with him. She called me disingenuously to share the excitement of my plans. She dropped into the conversation, ‘You’ll probably kiss him, won’t you?’ The unhappiness leaked from her voice and, like a fool, I felt sorry for her. ‘I won’t,’ I promised. You know what? I meant it. The manipulative madam had pushed me into a corner and now I was tying my own wrists to the railings. I must have had ‘MUG’ tattooed across my forehead.

I went to the prom with Jeremy, floating on a cloud of happiness. In front of everyone, the DJ presented me with a surprise bouquet that Jeremy had bought me for my birthday. We danced. A friend came over. ‘Kiss him!’ she cried. I shook my head, remembering the girl who was sitting alone on a sofa. Jeremy looked puzzled. My dad drove him home. I waved goodbye. As the car pulled away, I wondered … had I made the right choice?

She phoned again the next morning. I told her she didn’t need to worry, that I hadn’t kissed Jeremy. Several months later she started lying to me about when the gang were going out so that she could avoid me being around him. They never did get back together. 

Later, I’d have a brief romance with Jeremy but then he went to university and within the first couple of weeks I was dumped. It didn’t hurt too much – I think I knew he wasn’t a keeper. But I learned a really big lesson when I was 17 years old. Let me pass it on to you now.

When someone says, ‘You’ll probably kiss him, won’t you?’ SHOUT ‘YES’!!!!

peeps, are you with me?  because i'm getting a posse together, we're jumping in the time machine, and we are going after that ex girlfriend!!!  NO ONE MESSES WITH KAREN!

all right.  we've all got our game face on in the limo.  it's time for a hella shout yes.  i wonder who we can pick up next to get this throwdown started.... let's meet back here for cocktail hour today and find out...