People are strange- the Karen edition

And, in the tradition of saving the best for last..... we now present Karen, the best Carnival entertainment employee that is not actually paid and was never really hired for her services.

We were first introduced to Karen at Karaoke when she sang every other song very loudly and rather poorly. Now I know that I really have no room at all to judge, my singing abilities are limited to groups of 8 or more and I require a strong soprano that I can follow. But, I'm smart enough to keep my butt in the seat when the Karaoke mike is just sitting there waiting for someone to pick it up.

Our next encounter with Karen is my favorite. We were sitting in the piano bar and the guy at the piano was there entertaining us with his considerable skills when she walks in and sits right in front of him. Just as he finishes the song she says "If I bring in my own sheet music, do you think you could sight read it?"

He is a little taken aback but says gingerly "I guess I could give it a shot" "Ok, I've got it up in my room" and with a flash she's gone. (Karen always walked very fast on a mission to entertain someone). After she had exited the piano bar, piano guy says "too bad I don't read music.... oh well, I'll just tell her it's in the wrong language."

Karen was back shortly with her sheet music- she sat next to me and I saw the title- I think it was some sort of a jazz song and it may or may not have had "Tea" in the title. She let piano guy know that if he couldn't play it, not to worry, she could.

I guess he didn't take to kindly to random cruise passengers trying to take over his gig because although he let her sing, she neither sang nor played her own song that she brought down. Really who packs their own sheet music for a cruise? Swimsuit, fancy dress, easy read for the beach... all ok to throw in your bag, but sheet music, that's just silly.

We saw Karen around a lot in the following days and there were a few times when we all got up and left as she started singing that I felt kind of bad for her. But I've got to admit that I enjoyed the fact that, although both she and my cousin Natalie were in the final concert for the whole ship, Natalie got back up dancers and didn't have to wear a dress that was falling apart at the bottom.