Self Referential

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?

I think I have this … I’m back from a week-long visit with my family out in Indiana to catch up and to celebrate my birthday last Wednesday. It was a nice and relaxing time — my fiance joined me for part of the visit and it was a lovely change of pace to have time to sit and watch the birds or take a walk. And now … I’m back, it’s been a Monday and it seems all of that never really happened as I’m dealing with all the same tedium, problems and annoyances that were disappearing in my rearview mirror a few days ago. Anyone have any surefire tips for surviving the post vacation stress disorder?