State Fair

I am a big fan of state fairs, ever since living in Minnesota and going to the state fair every summer. I hated covering it for the Pioneer Press but I loved going to it when I didn't have to work. I got to see all the cool agricultural exhibits (yes, I'm a 4H geek), eat really good-tasting food that was terrible for me, and ice cream from the dairy barn, and seeing Princess Kay of the Milky Way and all her princesses carved in butter...you really haven't lived, in my opinion, until you've gone to a good state fair.

Because of our usual delays getting the hell out of the house at a decent hour, we didn't arrive at the Oregon State Fair until 3:30. I was determined to stay as late as we could (the fair closed at 9 and is open one more day until it closes for good) and we ended up spending five hours there, in Salem. And a full day it was: we got in at the entrance to where most of the rides were, and Rachel immediately wanted to go on as many as she could. She went on the Tilt-A-Whirl with Drew, and then she insisted on going on it again with me, and I acquiesced, and that is the LAST time I will do THAT again. The Tilt-A-Whirl is the mildest of rides and I was still terrified. And I mean TERRIFIED. I screamed the whole time. Rachel, meanwhile, was shrieking with laughter next to me. At one point she reached out and patted my breast as if to reassure me, and she shouted, "Mommy! You're not dying!" And I would have died with laughter except that I was too frightened to say anything.

This is a long way of apologizing to Mom and Dad (especially Dad) for insisting on going on Space Mountain at Disney World and all the other scary rides I did when I was a kid, mostly to prove to myself that I wasn't a scaredy-cat but partially to terrorize you both. Rest assured that God is punishing me for what I put you through. It won't be the last time, I'm sure....

Oh, and the rest of the day was fine. Rachel got to see some cute bunnies and guinea pigs, and we had chocolate ice cream from the Oregon Dairy Women organization, and Rachel got to play some games on the Midway, and got her arm painted with a Hello Kitty design, and got a pony ride, and we rode back to our car on the chairlift, and she persuaded Daddy to buy her some mermaid trinkets...and, really, we all had a great time except that I was/am fighting a cold and/or allergies and so I was pretty wiped out most of the time. But, hey, hopefully we created some great memories for our kid.

Especially the one in which she reassured Mommy that everything would be OK on the Tilt-A-Whirl....