I love...balloons.

Over this past weekend I went to a fundraiser for The Karen Foundation for MS. It was held at the Barley House downtown and was complete with live music, auctions, food, and a Joe Haden sighting. An adorable Joe Haden sighting.

There's one more thing that this fundraiser had...balloon creations! I say "balloon creations" because there weren't just balloon animals, but there were hats and other objects. My friend Cami and I stood in line anxiously awaiting our turn to ask the balloon guy for our balloon wishes. Cami was planning to ask for a pony, as she loves ponies. I was planning to ask for Prince (the artist), as I love Prince. As we got closer a girl in front of us got a balloon pony, so Cami decided to instead go with her back up: a unicorn hat. Just in case, I also chose a back up: pizza (as I also love pizza).

Finally it was my turn. I asked for Prince. The balloon guy told me he couldn't do that, but he would sing Prince while he made me something else. I agreed and asked for pizza. He agreed and started singing "Kiss" while twisting and turning several balloons into a tomato, green pepper and onion slice of pizza.

And let me tell you, it looked good. Delicious, in fact.

Cami then got her unicorn hat, and my friend Alyson got a big crazy hat:

After a while, friends encouraged me to ask that my pizza slice be make it into a hat, which was a good idea since carrying a balloon slice of pizza around all night would not have been very easy. That was how Pizza Hat came to be.

Then I thought: How could Pizza Hat be even better?
The answer: Have Joe Haden sign it.
So I did.

Here is Joe looking extremely focused while signing Pizza Hat:




















Here is Joe looking adorable after signing Pizza Hat:



After that, Pizza (as it came to be called) and I had many more adventures. Including going to a friend's house for Feaster Easter (a belated Easter dinner with a competition for the best side dish); a crazy dance party around a suitcase; and a late night stop at Flying Monkey for a couple drinks and a quick song on the jukebox ('Call Me, Maybe' - which I should note that when I went to play this song, a couple guys standing nearby threatened to pop my pizza hat if I played it. I played it anyway and called their bluff).

The next day it was really nice out and I met some friends back at the Flying Monkey patio later in the afternoon. We decided to go to Edison's for some pizza and it was suggested that I should run home and grab Pizza.

So I did.

Pizza enjoyed a slice of pizza with us, before we went back to Flying Monkey for Sunday night karaoke.

Now Pizza is slowly deflating and getting smaller, as that's what normally happens to balloons. But I'm not sad, because we'll always have our balloon memories...and Joe Haden.

(*thanks for the photo memories, Cami!)

I love...random short story Sunday.

What is "random short story Sunday"? It's a Sunday where I post one of the short stories that I've written.
When is "random short story Sunday"? It's today...right now! Random, huh? So grab your Snuggie, make some hot chocolate and curl up with this story about a porcupine & balloon animals.
Enjoy!

The Poptastic Poppy-Pop-Pop
by: jenny chalk

Once upon a time there was a puffy, purple porcupine named Poppy-pop-pop. Poppy-pop-pop was just about the happiest porcupine there ever was. He was happy when he fell asleep and happy when he woke up. He was happy when he stubbed his toe and happy when he got a cold. He was even happy when someone stole the wheels off his car - "Eh, I should do more walking anyways," he'd say.

There was only one thing in the whole world that made Poppy-pop-pop angry, and that was...balloon animals.

Poppy-pop-pop's balloon animal hatred started when he was very young. For his 5th birthday party his parents ordered a clown to come and entertain the kids. The clown had a big red nose and crazy blue hair, he smelled of alcohol and couldn't say Poppy-pop-pop's name without hiccuping. All the porcu-kids loved him! The clown danced around in the backyard, occasionally falling over and making everyone laugh. After he'd been there a while, he pulled out a huge bag of balloons. All the porcu-kids gathered around him and he began to blow up the balloons and twist them into tiny animals...well, at first he only made snakes, which were the easiest to do as there was nothing to do except blow up the balloon. But after Poppy-pop-pop's parents had a stern talk with the clown and gave him an extra twenty bucks he began to get more inventive. One porcu-kid got a pony. Another got a giraffe. Then another got a bumble-bee. The party was a hit! Then it was Poppy-pop-pop's turn, he asked for a teddy bear. The clown twisted and turned the balloon and created the most adorable balloon teddy bear anyone had ever seen. Poppy-pop-pop was soo happy!

That night Poppy-pop-pop carefully placed that cute, little teddy bear next to him in his bed. He wrote an entry in his journal titled "Me & My Balloon Bear...Forever". Then he fell asleep. Unfortunately in the middle of the night Poppy-pop-pop rolled onto his left side and popped that cute little balloon bear. He burst into tears. The next day he buried the little balloon pieces in his backyard and vowed to never, ever love another balloon animal. The mere thought of another balloon animal made his quills boil. When he was old enough he did some research and moved to a town with no clowns or balloon animals. Since then he'd been only happy.

One Sunday, years later, Poppy-pop-pop was walking home from his jazzercise class when he noticed a sign on one of the lamp posts that read: "First Annual Balloon Animal Parade! Starts today at 11:34 a.m."

Poppy-pop-pop looked at his watch, it was 11:33! He began running towards his house, if only he could get inside then he could close his blinds and watch reruns of Saved By The Bell until the parade was finished. But it was too late and he was too tired from jazzercise, he ran right into the path of the balloon animal parade. There were porcupines everywhere holding balloon dogs, balloon elephants, balloon ponies. Poppy-pop-pop's quills began to raise up. He imagined himself spinning in circles and popping all of the balloon animals in his path just to get them out of his sight.

Just as Poppy-pop-pop was about to lose it, a small little porcupine walked up to him from the crowd, smiling and holding out an adorable little teddy bear balloon. Poppy-pop-pop was suddenly flooded with memories of that teddy bear balloon animal from his 5th birthday. He asked himself why he'd been holding this hatred for all other balloon animals - they were still adorable. He told himself he should give them another chance. So he reached out and accepted that adorable little ballon bear from the little porcupine. He smiled, and gently held it out in front of him as he looked it over.

Then he karate popped that adorable little balloon bear. He was too old for toys, what would he do with it?

Poppy-pop-pop skipped home, made some chocolate chip cookies, took a bubble bath and fell asleep...happy. He didn't hate balloon animals anymore! He was officially the happiest porcupine there ever was.

The End