the metafictional blues

Sometimes I don’t always have time to write a full post each day but there’s usually always something I’m thinking about that I’d like to share — in the sidebar down there to your right (when looking at the blog’s main page) there’s a feed of random snippets — quotes, links, blips and blurbs that come in via my very own Tumblelog. I know, it’s getting to be a little too confusing, isn’t it? That’s just life with me, ask anyone.

Last week the county fair was in full swing, so we decided to head out on Wednesday evening to get our fair share of fried foods, overpriced midway games and of course, to check out all of the animal exhibits. I love the fair … maybe it’s because I grew up in a very rural area (I describe it this way… it’s so rural the Amish moved there to get away from the crowds) and the county fair was one of the big big deals of the year (next to homecoming and the local fall festival). The fair was THE place to be … the place to see and be seen. It always came just before school started, so you could meet up with your friends you hadn’t seen all summer and, when we got into junior and senior high school, to see who paired off with whom. Ah… the memories.

Madeleine loves the fair because a) there’s cotton candy and b) she likes winning prizes from the games. Of course this ends up taking a lot of $$, but it’s only once a year… that is, until the State Fair starts up next month.

I didn’t really set out to repair a toilet this weekend. And really, maybe “repair” is the wrong word …let’s say upgrade. Or we could take advantage of the hours of HGTV and TLC I’ve watched lately and call it “Flip This Toilet”. But that just sounds wrong. The fact is, the toilet wasn’t really broken, but I could tell it was going to be soon and more often than not it would continue to run water when not in use. Even though I could have called the maintenance people out on Monday, I decided I didn’t want them to just come out and fiddle around with it to get it to work with some replacement part. Although I’m not sure why… mainly because I hate sitting around waiting for them, I suppose. So what’s a girl to do? Go to Wal-Mart, of course, where I met up with the Hushflo^TM. After a quick scan of the directions on the package, it seemed easy enough, so I threw it in the cart. And then the adventure began! I grabbed my pink tool-kit and plenty of towels and set to work. Actually, the disassembly of the old parts and installation of the new ones went fairly well and didn’t take long at all. It was actually kind of fun and now I have the comfort of knowing if my current gig doesn’t work out, I may just have a budding career in the plumbing arts.

On Wednesday we went to the Prince William County Fair, which is incidentally the largest county fair in Virginia. I mainly went for the junk food and Madeleine was in it for the animals and playing games on the midway. So there’s truly something for everyone, I guess. It was the night of the demolition derby, so the fairgrounds were pretty packed. We didn’t actually go to see the derby, but saw some of the smashed up cars after it was all over. Madeleine thought it was a pretty weird concept. Me, I was just amused to see a Civil War encampment of re-enactors just on the edge of the derby track. But that wasn’t the strangest sight of the evening by far. At the fair there was also a performing animal show which included camels and elephants. At the county fair. Generally, you only get to see the usual barnyard inhabitants. It was sort of cool to see camels loping around a ring with ponies to polka music … but something sad about it as well. As we moved into some of the animal barns, Madeleine was more interested in the bunnies than anything, and of course they had several baby bunnies for sale. How convenient! (No, we did not buy one.) After making our rounds with the bunnies, chickens, goats, sheep, cows and pigs we headed for the fair exhibits. It’s always nice to see everyone’s handiwork, especially the entries from kids. I also was not aware that there was a fair category for potato art. If you can make a diorama populated by costumed potatoes, then you just may be able to walk away with a county fair ribbon. There is hope for some of us yet!

Of course the dusty barns are contrasted by the busy midway full of rides, games and food trailers that will serve you a cornucopia of everything fried. I ususally stick to the traditional fare, shying away from such newcomers as the fried twinkie, the fried oreo or the fried Snickers. Then there are the games … I will spare you the details, but after spending about $20 on midway games with only a small stuffed penguin and tye-dyed teddy bear to show for it, I decided we’d better wind down for the evening. Madeleine was fine with this and when I said “It costs a lot of money, but it’s fun.” she replied “Yeah, sometimes you just gotta let loose!” Exactly what the doctor ordered, I think.

Tomorrow I have to mail my skirt to someone. No, it’s not one of those swap-bot things or a new pyramid scheme. And no, Jamelah and I aren’t mailing clothes to each other in some sort of fashion-related Flat Stanley activity. Although that last one sounds like a really cool idea now that I mention it … No, it all started when I had a message on my answering machine from my friend Brandy. Now Brandy is one of my oldest (and dearest) friends — I’ve known her since 4th grade and we’ve been through A LOT together. But Brandy and I aren’t always that great about staying in touch, so it was a nice surprise to have a message from her. And that message went a little something like:

“Hey Caryn! It’s Brandy — I haven’t talked to you in like forEVER! Anyway, I wanted to call to say hi. I’m sure Cheryl told you that I’m having a baby, I’m due in December and we’re having a little girl. I also wanted to see if you could possibly send me the skirt from my wedding because…”

At which point I totally had to rewind the message and listen to it again because it really sounded like she was asking me to mail her a skirt. Which she was. And then I just cracked up. I got a chance to catch up with Brandy tonight — I’m ashamed to say we haven’t talked in probably over a year so we had a lot of things to tell each other. But the good thing is that Brandy and I have this understanding which runs along the lines of “if we don’t talk to each other for a long while, it’s nothing personal, it’s just that we both get sick of being on the phone and are just bad about that sort of things. no guilt trips required.” And it works pretty well for us. And that’s why I love Brandy. Plus she leaves messages about mailing skirts! It was great talking to her again and it turns out that another friend is getting married and they’re actually re-using the skirts from Brandy’s bridesmaids’ dresses for the bridesmaids for this wedding and wanted to see if I wouldn’t mind lending mine. And since I don’t really wear a long black satin skirt around the house, of course I’d send it along. So now I need to box it up, I guess. Now I can’t get that song “Brandy” out of my head.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to mail?