My favorite time of year is the fair. My favorite holiday is Halloween, because any holiday with candy and the color orange just can't go wrong in my opinion. But the fair is where it's at for me. Some people look forward all year long to Christmas. I love Christmas, but I don't count down the months until Christmas. I do count down the time until the fair returns.
For all my life I've lived near the state fairgrounds on which the state fair is held each year. I have memories from my young childhood of the atmosphere, the smells, the food and the rides. I remember asking my father how the roller coaster goes upside down and the people don't fall out. As I got older I remember the games that take your money because there is no way you're going to win the little stuffed animal. I remember being older and going with friends from school without parents.
When I got to junior high it was a fun time because you could go with your boyfriend. You got to hold hands, stand really close so you wouldn't get lost in the crowds and sit even closer together on the rides. Oh the fair and the memories.
As I grew older the fair became more about the food and the exhibits than the rides. The exhibit buildings that were so boring as a youth now have interesting or even funny displays. There's always the largest pumpkin to see and there are samples to be had and there are wares to be sold.
But it is about the food for me. I have a route I like to take that is completely food-driven. The foods include, in order: Grist mill hush puppy sample, fresh squeezed apple cider, roasted corn, crawfish bites, mini-donuts, fried tilapia, peanut sample, House Autry hush puppy sample, large pickle, maple syrup cotton candy sample, honey cotton candy sample, Wisconsin cheese bites, deep fried twinkie and State Fair ice cream. Sometimes not all of these things happen because there's only so much room in my stomach, but I try to fit them all in over a few visits each year.
Each year there are new items, sometimes strange, some delicious sounding. A few years ago it was the Krispy Kreme donut hamburger and the year after that it was the "pig licker" bacon dipped in chocolate on a stick. This year features some new deep fried delights including, deep fried girl scout cookies, deep fried swiss rolls, deep fried cupcakes and deep fried cinnamon roll with bacon.
My in-laws are coming to town now so we can all go to the fair today. My parents came to town yesterday so my father can do his yearly fair trip. I'm only a few short hours away from the fair. And I'm hungry thinking about all the food there.
One year during fair week I gained five pounds because I went six times and overate every single time. It got me thinking. I plan on overeating today. I plan on overeating on Monday when we go back with our friends. What happens when you submit your body to more food than it needs in a day? We know the body turns that extra into stored fat. But is there a threshold in which the body can't convert it all and just sends it down the line? Surely the competitive eaters that are thin don't turn all fifty-six hotdogs into fat. How does that works? I don't know, I don't want to know. I have prepared for today's trip by running eleven miles and planning to run hopefully fourteen more this weekend.
So fair food, beware. Here comes my stomach.
The Big Boy Update: The Midnight Monster. What have we created? He was unhappy last night feeling poorly, so my husband went up to check on him. We knew he was unhappy because he was yelling. When my husband left him a few minutes later, he started screaming. Screaming that was truncated because his throat is raspy with his croup so it sounded like partial screams. I think we're trying to help, but we're sometimes making it worse by being too responsive. He's going to have to learn how to self-soothe when he wakes up at night. His sister, the champ that she is, never woke once with the screaming. It's a perfect example of how you get something right with the second child because you see how you messed it up with the first child.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The Cookie Machine. We have a little cup with a rubber lid you can reach into and pull out crackers or cookies. My daughter is just learning how to use it. This morning she was so happy sitting on the floor, pulling out crackers, dropping some on the floor for the dog, shoving the rest into her mouth. It was like she had a cookie machine that magically kept giving out cookies.
Fitness Update: Five miles with my neighbor this morning. Lately, we're running in the dark the whole time, with just a bit of light as we finish. Daylight savings time is coming soon so we're hoping in a few weeks we'll be able to run in the park again and not be stuck with the boring neighborhood loop. Incidentally, we have a shy street lamp we run by regularly. It turns off when we pass it. The first few times it seemed like coincidence, but it's happened so many times now that we're wondering if it's sending us a message in lamp-code saying, "Go back to bed. It's too early."
Someone Once Said: Reward people with stupid stuff and they'll do almost anything
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