Even in high school, I was never a popular girl and I avoided hanging out with the jocks, cheerleaders and clique-y snob girls. Those kind of people never appealed to me, and they still don't. But when I started including a woman named Karen in the riding and horse camping events I planned, I only did it as a favor to another former riding friend, Vicki. Karen and Vicki were friends, and I thought Vicki would enjoy having her friend included. But both Vicki and Karen are the snobby, spoiled, clique-y, high maintenance, diva-drama types, although Karen was always much, much more so.
I quickly regretted including Karen to anything I planned, because she often complained, whined, gossiped, and just acted like the queen of the universe. The drama was a bit much and really caused a lot of problems. And Karen, although married to a wealthy man and not needing for anything, was very selfish, and a real taker-type, never offering to plan anything and never offering to help anyone. She would just show up when it suited her and she was very opportunistic. One time when she went on a ride with some other friends without inviting me, she claimed that they didn't know me, so she didn't want to ask if I could come along. Which was a lame excuse, because I had invited her to all my rides, even though I didn't really know her, and she often invited friends of hers to the rides I planned, even though I, nor the rest of my friends knew them. Karen was just a user type.
Another time, I had organized a group horse camping event, and had asked everyone to bring one potluck dish to share. She had signed up to bring the main dish, Enchiladas. But after a night of rain, her horse acting like a jerk, and her just not happy with anything, Karen decided that since she wasn't having any fun, she would just leave, without telling anyone while we were all out on a trail ride. And Karen took her main dish with her, leaving the rest of us without anything to eat for dinner, but chips and a few side dishes.
After she had integrated herself into my group of friends, she invited herself to all of my organized events and tried to get very cozy with me, by constantly texting me and calling me to gossip and bad mouth and complain about others. I just listened and politely empathized with her, but it really annoyed me, because I kept thinking, "If she's gossiping and bad mouthing other people to me, then she's probably gossiping and badmouthing me to others, too". So, I tried to avoid her as much as possible and stopped returning her calls and getting caught up in her long whine and gripe sessions about her ex-friend Karen A., and others that "took advantage of her", or who were making her life less than perfect.
But one conversation really stands out with me, and that happened about 2 years ago. I had messaged Karen to invite her to a horse camping weekend I had planned, and right away, she acted suspicious. She wanted to know why I was inviting her and quickly told me that she was never going to haul my horse to any ride. She wanted me to know right up front so I would never expect her to do that for me. I was shocked because I didn't need my horse hauled by her and I had never once asked her to haul my horse to any horse related events. Karen also reminded me of the time about a year earlier when she had invited me to sleep in her RV while horse camping because Dacodah, a mutual friend, had asked her to. She did it as a favor because she had a crush on him and he was training her horse. I could tell she really didn't want me in her RV, and I didn't know her well, so I tried to stay out of her way. But that night she cranked the heat up way above 80 degrees and I felt like I was going to pass out from heat stroke. So, I opened the window above the sofa where I was sleeping, just a crack, so I wouldn't bother her about turning the heat down. But come to find out she was greatly offended by me opening the window without her permission and she still held a grudge against me for that. And I found out months later that Karen had also complained to several other people about me cracking the window open in her RV without her permission. Apparently that little act caused her great pain and suffering.
But, anyway, Karen told me that she didn't want to give anyone's horse a ride and that she didn't like doing things for other people because it was too great of an inconvenience and she went on to name people that had caused her a hassle because she had given them or their horses a ride, and these were all people that I thought were her friends. But she apparently had something negative to say about anyone and everyone, especially if they caused her any inconvenience or did anything that she didn't approve of.
That interaction with her greatly changed my perspective of her and I avoided her even more after that. She still invited herself to any of my rides that she wanted to attend, though, because she had integrated herself into my circle of friends. But she always caused drama during every ride or horse camping event. She complained if I didn't take enough photos of her, or if I took photos of her and her horse's ears, or her hair, or clothes weren't perfect. She griped if anyone was late. She whined if we didn't turn around on the trail when she was too hot or tired, or if the views weren't to her liking. Karen complained if it rained or if the weather was less than perfect. She complained if we took a different trail than she wanted, or if the trail surface wasn't perfect. She even complained when our host and trail guide brought her dogs on a ride. And Karen also whined if she couldn't camp where she could hook up her big RV to electric, so she could have all the comforts of home. She also enjoyed creating cliques and got great enjoyment from excluding others. She would drink heavily and flirt with any men that were nearby. Karen was the queen diva. And it was a real drag having her around. I often regretted including her and wished there was a polite way to send her packing.
But one day, she did me a great favor and made my wishes come true. I didn't realize it at the time because I took it personally and got my feelings hurt because of the way she gave me the news. Karen messaged me and asked me to remove me as her Facebook friend. And when I asked why, all she could tell me was that I was a sweet girl, and very nice, but I wasn't her type. I look back at that and find it funny now because her treatment towards me and her fake personality was no reflection of me as a person at all. But it did reveal what kind of person she was. And one that I am so thankful is
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