Thursday, July 26, 2012

True story: I survived the fair

Last year, Abby went to the County Fair with a group of friends, and I never did get around to taking Johanna.  Well, I was still new to the working world and I was having major problems figuring out how to function with four less hours in my day, I guess.  Whatever.  The point is that Johanna DID NOT FORGET ALL YEAR and likes to point it out periodically, just to remind me that I suck as a mother.

So this year, obviously, going to the fair with my children was a priority.  Because while I do suck as a mother, I like to suck at different things from year to year.


Back in my stay-at-home-mother days, we'd go to the fair opening day in the afternoon.  Get it done and get the hell out, that was my motto.  That doesn't work very well when you work from 1-5 p.m., but the upside is that I get out of my house every single day and don't have to look at piles of laundry all the time.

The plan was simple, yet perfect: I get off of work, we eat dinner, we head to the fairgrounds.  Eric had "outside chores" that needed "attention" and thus wasn't able to come with us.  And I was all, that is BRILLIANT.  Why didn't I think of that?

The fair is not exactly my favorite thing to do ever, that's why, but still, we endure because we must.


It had been a very hot day, which was perfect because that meant the night was going to be awesome.  And it was.  We were running around in tank tops at 9:30 p.m.  You can't tell me that's not amazing.

Abby's fair agenda included finding friends and ditching Johanna and I, but I was cool with that.  She was very, very good about checking in with me at the designated time.  She's so responsible!  Maybe I don't suck too much as a mother after all.  PLUS.  I didn't have to see her go on rides of questionable origin that I'm always pretty sure are going to kill us all whether we ride them or not.

Hey, she did walk around with us for a little while so we could check out the animals.  I mean, the kid turns 13 tomorrow.  It's amazing she'll be seen with us at all.


Johanna's fair agenda included finding a fedora.  I'm not even joking.  After Abby found her friends and left us to fend for ourselves, we hit the fairway to see what sort of merchandise we could find.  Johanna zeroed in on a display of fedoras pretty fast.  The guy was all, $10, but for her, $8.  I'm only making 75-cents per hat, but that's okay, I can get more.  I suck at motherhood AND bargaining because I was going to just pay the ten bucks, but anyway, for $8 and the nagging feeling I was still being had, Johanna got her fedora.  It's fake straw and ugly, and will most likely fall apart before the week is out, but my baby is happy.  She gave her fedora periodic kisses all evening, and I got a lot of hugs and I love yous.

So that was $8 well spent is what I'm saying.


My fair agenda included begging Johanna to please just let me look at the exhibits for five minutes.  I never get around to entering anything--that would require an effort, you see--but it's still fun to see what everyone else is doing, especially the quilts and the art.  Johanna spent her time asking to leave and then demanding I look at something cool she'd found.  She was freely giving her own verbal blue ribbons "to anything that doesn't freak me out."  Well, why not?

Oh, yeah, and it was a mini-reunion of sorts, because we all saw people that we know (and our nephews were there running around with their girlfriends, so it was fun to sneak up on them).  I won't lie, while I am a natural introvert, I do enjoy catching up with friends.

We finally got out of there at 9:45 p.m., which I thought was generous and the girls thought wasn't quite long enough, but they were good about it.  I promptly washed the carnival off and gave myself a standing ovation for enduring and succeeding.  And!  Now I don't have to worry about it again for an entire year!  That's most of the battle right there.

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