Life, It's a Hellava Drug

I know i missed yesterday, but it was a pretty busy day. Worked all day then had a fraternity poker game over at the chapter house.  The chapter is always a struggle and even though their trying, it just doesn't seem to be coming together.  Not that the alumni were helping out much; we had well over 20 rsvp's for the poker party and only around 10 guys showed up.  Oh well.  I put a lot of time and effort into the chapter, both as an active and as an alumni. I'm wasn't in charge of the poker party and didn't let the low numbers get me down.  I had a real good time playing card with the guys who did show up and caught up with some good brothers. As an added bonus, i won the poker tournament, so that was an easy extra chunk of change back in my pocket.

As for the recap of the rest of the week, its kind of all laid out there in each of my posts.  I think instead of using each day to recap something that just happened, that maybe I'll use whatever that days designation is a starting point to begin the subject and not necessarily something that just happened. Either way, since I've already talked about each day, i might as well focus on today. Today was football Sunday, but since the Chiefs suck, we decided to take the kids to the Kansas state fair.  It was the last day of the fair and the kids love to go.  Since the chiefs game was a blowout, we made a good effort with the kids to sow them a good time.  I don't know if you've ever been to a fair before, but i am sure most state fairs around the country are pretty much the same.  It's a great mix of city and country folk, and it is by far the best people watching there is.

For me, i have a routine.  Like everything else, from when i go to the mall, to going to the zoo, i pretty much have to do everything in the same order each time.  The fair is no different. We go in the same gate, do the same thing first and always finish up with the same thing at the end. We always start with the animals: pigs, cows, sheep, rabbits, birds. The kids love the animals and we love the smell? The best is the bird house. My wife is petrified of birds and its filled with pigeons, ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys. The kids have to go up and down each aisle, and there's the wife: arms at here side, keeping a keen eye on every bird in every cage making sure that none attack here. The other thing we can always count on when seeing the animals is that I'll always scare her in the bird house. This year was no exception and her scream and jump never gets old. This year's bonus while in the animal area: a baby cow being born. Absolutely discusting, but its the cycle of life and the kids loved it.  The more blood and goo for them the better.

Then its off to the other buildings, we go see the art entries from across the state, the prize winning vegetables and largest pumpkin, and the butter sculpture. I didn't really get this year's butter piece but its 1000 lbs of something and its all made of butter.  Only in Kansas. We ride the train around the fair, and then its off to do some fair style eating. They fry anything and everything at the fair and we tried to get a piece of all of it. This year's delicacies we enjoyed were roasted corn on the cob, a smoked turkey leg, fried pretzel niblets, and homemade, freshly squeezed cherry limeade.  My diets been going good but this ruined it all and i loved every bit of it. So we're done eating, filled to the brim, but if we don't get these kids to the midway for some rides, they'll have our heads.

This is where we get to the good stuff: the midway. Carney central. Rides and rides, and more rides. And on every side of the rides are games and games, and more games. It's the people though who are the real entertainment.  Like i said before, the state fair, at least in Kansas, truly brings people of all backgrounds together to create one large melting pot of sweat, smoke, tattoo's, and the gnarliest bits you've ever seen.  They had a special on the last day for the kids: it was all you can ride for $25 and we made sure the kids got our money's worth.  The best part was that every time the kids got on a ride, i got to watch the people. If i had a penny, not a nickel or a quarter, but a penny, for every missing tooth, badly drawn tattoo or pair of coochie cutter shorts, I'd be a billionaire. Not a millionaire, a billionaire. I should have been a dentist. I could set up shop at the state fair, work 1 week a year, and roll in the cash.

The kids rode the rides and when they finally got their fill, it was on to the games.  Their way over priced, you can't win at any of them, but if i didn't shell out at least 20 bucks, i would be the "worst" father ever, and the fair would have been a total let down in the eyes of my kids. After entry, foods, rides, and all the knick-knacks, I'm in for over a bill already, so what's another $20? Well, wouldn't you know. A cool $20 down the drain and along with all the pamphlets, magnets and crap the kids have already picked up, I've now got a giant blow up hammer and dolphin that both squeak and two freakin' goldfish. We haven't won a prize worth squat in years and now we hit the mother load. Its late and we have to get these kids to bed. We drive back and after i get done writing this, i have to make a middle of the night trip to Walmart for a fish tank cause according to one tooth willie, these fish won't make it through the night if i don't. After such a great time at the fair, and me being father of the year at this point, i can't have dead fish on my hands when the darlings wake up in the morning. Wish me luck, life, it's a helluva drug.