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Friday, August 29, 2003
The Fair, Part 1
Music: none, kids are watching Jonah
Mood: aaaahhhhhhh.... :)
You know how fantastic it feels when you've been uncomfortable, to get comfortable finally? Like when you've had on tight shoes and you can take them off, or when you've had to pee for ages and you finally go and then for like ten minutes afterward you're just ecstatic that you don't have to pee anymore? That is me right now. My chapped lips have Blistex, my parched throat has cold water, I'm wearing sweats and I've got my hair loosely confined and out of the way. Bliss. Mmm, and diet Coke too.
We had a nice time tonight. After the shuttle bus driver drove right by our stop without, um, stopping (this has happened the last three years -- the fair board gets a cheaper deal contracting with people from the valley for the shuttle bus, except that they hire these idiots who take three of the four days of the fair just learning where they're supposed to go. They should go back to using school buses and school bus drivers from the local school district, IMO), we drove to the fair and paid to park. We looked around at some exhibits, got some dinner (Indian fry bread, yum), and then hit the rides. Right away we discovered a shocking truth: LT is too big for kiddie rides. No more motorcycles, no more jeeps with beepy horns, no more dragon roller coasters. And of course, tonight, that left C without a riding partner for those rides. She befriended a little girl and went with her on the jeeps, and ended up holding her ears the whole time because of the incessant and loud squawking, beeping horns (I swear the guys who manage that ride must only last about two days before they're carted off to the looney bin). But she wanted the comfort and strength of her big brother with her on the motorcycles, and since he couldn't go, she didn't either. Instead the two of them had a fantastic time on this obstacle course sort of thing made to be like an Indiana Jones adventure or something. We did the obligatory Super Slide as well, and then ran into some friends of ours, M and his wife D. D and I were talking about how chicken our husbands are, and how they are afraid of scary rides. Somehow we ended up being sorta dared to go on this really wild one; my dad bought 4 tickets and put them in my hand, and off we went. This ride is hard to explain -- picture a rigid oval track, and a train sort of thing that rides around on the inside of it; when the train is on the inside of the top, it is upside down. Now picture that the oval track swivels on an axis. OK, I actually, believe it or not, found a website about it. Anyway, we went and got in line. Now, M and D are in their mid-late thirties (I think). I'm 28. We felt like absolute dotards waiting in this carnival line. We were surrounded by enough pubescent hormones to power Cleveland. And the music -- well, it's really loud. The funny thing is that ten to fifteen years ago this was the place to be. I was one of those hormone-laden teenagers not so long ago. T was taking video of us in the line, interviewing our kids and my parents and probably M as well, Geraldo-style, about us going on this ride. Very clever. Then we actually got ON the ride. OH MY GOSH. THAT is what it felt like to be 17! We laughed the whole time. I haven't done anything that crazy in a long, long time. It was a blast, really it was. I don't have the iron stomach I once did, though; I was glad that it didn't last much longer than it did. So, whether she knew it or not, was D. :)
After a Ferris wheel ride for me and LT (C didn't want to try it, so of course T stayed with her), and one more round on the obstacle course, we headed home, and as soon as was humanly possible I got into jammies-and-comfort mode. aaaahhh. :) Tomorrow is the big day for T -- the derby. After we go to the parade in the morning, the kids and I will go to briefly visit T at the area where the derby drivers take their cars to be inspected and wait for the derby; then we'll go to the fair for a while, to look at the animals and use up the rest of the kids' ride tickets; then I'll take C out to my parents' so that Mom can watch her for the evening while LT and I go back in to watch the derby. Then I get to drive back out there and pick her up. Looong day ahead....
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