So it begins ....

I keep thinking, "Karen, you should start a blog" and then I start, get hung up on what to name it, give up and repeat the process a few years later.

I've had several blogs and I'm fine that they are now dead.  Some things are better left alone, much like black mold and hornets' nests.

Titles I've played with but abandoned are "Long Way Home" and "It's my life!"  Google made me aware that the first title is a song and the second, the vocal Bon Jovi anthem is on rotation for my listening pleasure at the gym.

So why Believe impossible things?  Many reasons really.  To give a little background, the lyric is from a Brad Paisley song, "American Flag on the Moon" and I love the message he conveys.

Tonight I dare you to dream

Go on believe impossible things

Whenever anybody says

There’s anything we can’t do

I mean after all

There’s an American flag on the moon

Some day I will get into my background more, but I am the survivor of a head on collision. A guy fell asleep at the wheel and hit me, crushing my car and me. Two broken legs, left arm mangled, but despite the odds I lived and 20+ years later continue to live. Well, I'm trying to live any how, but I still have a whole lot to learn.

The crash is mostly relevant because it is a defining part of my life, one that can be used for or against me. By law I am "handicapped" and am protected by the amazing rights of the Americans with Disabilities Act. How this translates to the real world has pretty much been defined by me. To some it means I get the "good parking" and either think it's cool or unfair. To me it means I can shop in semi-bad weather and I'm close to the door if I hurt myself in a store, but am still able to limp out. Having this privilege is a blessing, but so far I haven't met many people who are willing to become qualified for it. (Trust me, I've offered to help the most obnoxious of those who have issue with my parking!)

My physical issues do become a valid reason for some things. I can't plank in a traditional way because my left arm is 'special' (pat pat pat) in that it doesn't have an elbow joint, but has a non-union site that has adapted to become an elbow. He (yep he) is known as Lefty and some day he'll have his full story told, maybe even with video if I can figure that out. In other ways it doesn't because I was told I was DOA when the first responder showed up and I calmly asked him not to call me that.  That was the first of "things you're not" and by far not the last.  Not suppose to walk, not suppose to dance, not suppose to have any life at all what so ever (and that wasn't even crash related!)

In a way my life has always been about defying the odds or succeeding despite. Of course there has been giant amounts of failures and mistakes in there too. Come on people, I am human even though I answer to SuperGimp! (dun dun duunnnn!)

I'm the fourth child, only girl, and not only was being a girl a surprise, apparently the whole having another baby was a surprise.  I found out in the last year that I am the oops baby in my family, even though my oldest brother was 14 when I was born.   Finding out you are the oops at 46 is quite funny and slightly awkward.  Still I was proud to take the title away from sibling #3.

Currently I am 46.  My older brothers are 60, 59 & 50.  Needless to say, you can figure out with that math why sibling #3 thought he was the surprise.  No, I was the anniversary celebration and Mom said she told my Dad that the next anniversary she'd just prefer a normal present.

Some point in time I got fat.  Not just chunky, fluffy, or overweight.  FAT.  I got fat.  I have fat, but fat doesn't define who I am.  Defining who I am is a whole other page yet to come.

At any rate I want to welcome you to my world.  Please fasten your seat belt and keep all limbs inside the car.  Have a safe ride!