Friday, October 14, 2005

Fair to Middling

Yesterday I went to the State Fair. And yes, I went by myself. I know that's kind of weird, but I really wanted to go on a weekday. Last year I went on the last Saturday, and it sucked. It was so crowded that it was nut to butt, and I couldn't even get in to see the frisbee dogs because the arena was already full. I asked Mabel if she wanted to go to the Fair at some point, but I haven't heard back from her a week later. None of my other lame friends wanted to skip work, so I just went by myself. It was a lot better crowd-wise.

The first food stop was for a roasted ear of corn. They give you an ear of corn and you hold it by the shuck. There are all kinds of spices that you can put on your corn. I went with the Cajun spice. Damn that was good. The next stop was for the fabled corny dog. I went with the regular variety rather than the cheese and jalapeno. I figured there was no need to add insult to injury (I would change my mind on that later). As a kid I used to put ketchup on my corny dogs in the school cafeteria, but at some point I was taught that is a no-no. So, I slathered on the mustard and chowed down. The third stop was for a root beer from the cart with the giant root beer barrels. I like how the bees hang out around the root beer tap.

Next I did a walkthrough of the domestic part of the Auto Show. It's amazing what being jobless will do to your desire to even think about buying a car. I planned to go to something billed as a 'Tropical Greenhouse Tour' so I had to hoof it across the fairgrounds. I made it to the specified location but the 'tour' ended up being a lady standing in one location in the greenhouse who would answer a question if you had one. You pretty much had to tour the greenhouse yourself. It was very interesting though (at least to me) and then I looked at their butterfly garden outside. I am pretty fascinated by plants. I am thinking I may have throw that fact into my giant boiling 'potential career cauldron' from which I'm hoping my true calling will emerge.

The next item on the agenda was to go to the Top-Flight Canine show. They have some really hyper dogs who catch frisbees, jump over some big hurdles, and jump into a pool of water. One of these dogs jumped a hurdle that was 52" off of the ground, which was pretty impressive to me anyway. After that I caught about 5 minutes of the African acrobats, who did some pretty amazing stuff. Then I went to the import section of the Auto Show. I found further proof that I am getting old when I noticed that I spent most of my auto viewing time in the Toyota section, along with a healthy number of senior citizens. Yes! I am interested in the same cars as 75 year-olds! Sweet!

I then went to see the butter sculpture. This is something I do every year, although I think last year when I got to the usual location there was no butter sculpture. This year the sculpture is Elvis, along with a contingent of hound dogs. It was pretty cool. Not too many people work in the medium of butter so I have to give it some props. Although to me Elvis' face looked more like Robert Mitchum from 'Night of the Hunter'.

I swung by to take a look at the Budweiser Clydesdales. Those are some damn impressive animals. I then felt the need to further punish my stomach, so I decided to get some fried okra. I love fried okra. I didn't love this fried okra. It was way too greasy, and as a bonus I even got some oil in the bottom of the cup. Blech.

I should have left at that point, but I felt the need to try one of those disgusting fried desserts that everyone is always going on about. Fried twinkies, fried Snickers bars, fried marshmallows. I had my heart set on a fried Twinkie, but when I got to the booth I discovered they didn't have them. There must have been a lawsuit or something. So, I settled for the fried Oreos. They weren't nearly as bad as I was expecting, although I kind of wish I hadn't gotten them. I had a low-grade headache all day which blossomed into a full-blown one by the time I got home. I blame the Oreos. Or the okra. I almost didn't have to eat dinner since I ate so much crap at the Fair. But I did eat a bowl of tomato soup. This morning I caught sight of the organic honey nut 'Os cereal that I have and wish I would have eaten that instead. Since I've been out of work I don't really eat breakfast anymore and the cereal just sits there, forlorn. Poor cereal. Holy crap, I almost forgot the title of my blog! Anyway, I guess the Fair itch has been scratched for this year.

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10 Comments:

Blogger Michelle said...

You sound like an overgrown boy who ate too much at the big city fair. I love it. I hope you got a picture of the butter Elvis. I would love to see that.

10/14/2005 6:33 PM  
Blogger JC said...

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera. I didn't feel like being camera nerd yesterday.

I found a couple of pictures online that were taken during the construction. I'll e-mail them to you. Maybe if Anne goes she can take a picture of the finished product...

10/15/2005 12:10 AM  
Blogger hollibobolli said...

yet another phrase that has eluded me in this lifetime: "nut to butt"

you know - I have had root beer cans sitting on my patio table (remember, I'm a root beer addict) which could explain angry bee..

um.. butter sculpture? I'm assuming it wasn't out in the heat?

I heard the fried nutter butters were good.

10/15/2005 10:33 PM  
Blogger Michelle said...

I can't believe so many people have never heard "nut to butt" before. I can't believe that term turns me on. TMI,I know but I can't help it.

10/15/2005 10:52 PM  
Blogger JC said...

Thanks for the comments everyone, they cheered me up a little after kind of a rough day.

Holli,
I'm glad to have enriched your vocabulary. The root beer cans probably are not helping the angry bee situation, bees love anything sugary. The butter sculpture has it's own little room kept at 40 degrees! I don't think they had the fried Nutter Butters this year, but that would have been a good choice.

Karen,
I'm glad to have enriched your vocabulary too, and I'm glad you got a chuckle.

Michelle,
You sick little monkey!

10/15/2005 11:51 PM  
Blogger JC said...

Anne,

The root beer seems to taste better than the store-bought stuff to me, but maybe it's just the atmosphere. And girl, you got to set those sheets free!

10/16/2005 4:46 PM  
Blogger hollibobolli said...

exactly.. who else besides me would list Crumb among their favs? It isn't on my actual list - but it's on my "actual list".

10/17/2005 4:43 PM  
Blogger JC said...

Anne,

The cape came from my Underdog Halloween costume when I was 4.

Holli,

Exactly what? I recommended Crumb once to a friend of mine who likes movies and he hated it. Philistine.

10/17/2005 6:14 PM  
Blogger hollibobolli said...

exactly about loving the profile.. if I updated my movies.. well - I saw yours and was going to update mine, but then felt like a copycat.

I'm a documentary freak, but love David Lynch too.. so what a great combo!!

10/17/2005 7:05 PM  
Blogger JC said...

Cool. I've met people who I was scared to tell that 'Boogie Nights' is one of my favorite movies, but on here I can be totally honest. I love David Lynch too. I need to add Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive to my list.

As far as documentaries, have you seen 'Hands on a Hard Body'? It's pretty good.

10/17/2005 9:54 PM  

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