Chaos Attraction

All Day At The State Fair

2014-07-27, 4:31 p.m.

Yesterday I went back to the State Fair. Allllll day. By which I mean "there from opening to closing." Maybe that was a mistake because hoo boy, am I freaking exhausted today and haven't done much. I need to do the dishes and go to the grocery store and clean up the joint and organize things for my show and I can't get off my damn couch because of TIRED. Sheesh.

Anyhoo, Dawn wasn't able to come for various reasons, so I went alone, figuring I could go check out the things other people don't want to do, like look in the animal barns. I was surprisingly charmed by the llamas and alpacas. I went through the nature exhibits in the back of the fairgrounds. I did some shopping and ended up buying two dresses, which I probably shouldn't have done but oh well. Mostly I think I'm just annoyed that one of them cost more than I figured it would.

I also ate my way through the fair. This year's "weird food try" was chicken wrapped in bacon, which was DELICIOUS. I also had more spaghetti ice cream. On the other hand, I tried a different orange chicken vendor this year because it was a buck cheaper and shouldn't have, because the food was mostly tasteless. Blech, what a waste, should have gone with the vendor I did know.

I went through the buildings I went to last time a bit more, but not as long as I did last time. However, by around 3 p.m. I'd gone through everything and was debating going home and was feeling tired. But I kind of wanted to hang around and see some of the nighttime shows... I went so far as to get a hand stamp and go out to my car around 4, but after seeing all of the people still trying to get in, and thinking, "What am I going to do at home, just sit around?", I elected to stay and kill some time.

I did mostly just do things that involved sitting, like take the monorail ride and go to a bunch of animal shows. I saw a dog agility show that wasn't too bad, and a show that featured western and dressage riders doing...whatever it is that they do. That was a bit dull. After being kind of bored by the last one, I wandered off to ride the monorail.

There were two shows going on at 8: the big concert and the Wild West show. I figured (correctly) that the latter show would be pretty short so I could do both shows. I was mildly interested in seeing the concert because it was at least a band I had heard of, Trick Pony. (There were other shows I would have liked to have seen this year, but they were timed inconveniently for me.) I like their song "The Bride," it's a hoot. And I also reasonably figured that this band wouldn't be so full that I couldn't watch the show if I wandered in later.

However, the Wild West Show was....not wild. Mostly it was dull. It started out with a cowgirl team that rode in formations, which was cool, but after that it slowed down. Like it featured a woman riding sidesaddle for awhile. They explained the history and reasoning behind it, said that yes, men should have been doing that instead and a few had, and sidesaddle is used for disabled riders today. Okay, cool, but then they had a fake robbery in which the girl was told to stay still while the sheriff caught the bad guy. Sigh. They also had several people just ride around in outfits. They had one girl playing Annie Oakley and she got to do jack shit and we were supposed to be applauding a lot. They also finished off with a "let's mourn dead soldiers" tribute. The only part that was super interesting after the start was when they showed the promised acrobats, in which really young kids (seriously, there was a toddler in the show, there were kids probably just into double digits, probably the oldest kid in this was maybe 15) posed in scarily creative ways while the horse trotted around in a circle. But damn, whose parents let their kids do that so little? Anyway, I basically tell y'all this because should you ever go to the state fair, it is probably not worth going to most of the horse arena stuff. I like horses, but most of that was sloooooow. Like going to a rodeo.

I then went to catch the last half of Trick Pony, which was odd. I found a seat where I could see a camera view of the screen and thought, "Damn, this is a better spot then when I've paid for tickets by the stage." The lead singer had a big ol' wet spot on her stomach that was ah, rather distracting. And...well, have you ever been to a concert with low turnout where the performers are trying to act like that isn't the case? It's...weird. I don't know what this band has been up to for the last whatever years, I don't really follow country, but they said it was a comeback tour. I wish them well on that. I did like that they did "Johnny and June," so there's something else I'd heard of.

At the end of the night, they had three officers on horseback just hanging around the front, and people were asking them questions and petting the horses. Pretty cute. They had a 10-minute fireworks show and then I left...hoo boy, traffic jamming was fun. I went home and had to show because between the rodeo area and it being hot, I was pretty dang messy. Then I have keeled over and stayed keeling over ever since! So much for my plans for the day.... I slept till eleven and haven't made it off the couch too often. It's nearly 5 now and I am hoping I'll finally get enough energy to do some shit at some point.


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