The Fair

This Thursday I made the journey as thousands of others did to the great minnesota get together, aka The State Fair. I went there with Jen and we spent most of the time wandering around, eating the occational snack and basically enjoying the weather.
A few things stood out on this trip, things I probably never noticed of realized in any other time at the fair. The first thing I noticed is that they scan ID's for beer sales. I think this is great, and a great way of making underage drinking a team sport again. The game is that people of age buy for people underage at a slight markup. A drink handoff is easier here than at a wedding reception (which is really easy). I also noticed how really sad the life of a carny must be. They sit in the midway and sell the idea of winning a stupid prize while knowing all the while that they are thieves and poorly dressed thieves at that. I don't feel bad for them as much as I do the ride operators. They have to spend hours listening to the same sounds, either a song on 1000 repeat or noises and beep and buzzers. All the while doing it without a smile. IT'S THE FIRST DAY!! You'll be doing this for another week and a half! The greatest part of the fair was when we stumbled into the "Coloseum" which was just underway to start an equestrian show, my first. I didn't realize how many times the horses get scared to jump the hurdles, who would have thought? The other thing that was amazing is that I didn't see anyone I knew, not one person in this mess of human beings did i know! Kind of amazing since i seem to run into at least two or three everywhere else I go.
Overall the fair still is the same, nothing changes. Fish still swim in that cool circle pond, endless cover bands play familiar Eagles songs, men with overalls and odd haircuts, smells of sweets and salty deep-fried delights flow into every nasal pore, girls that are too young for me now seem to get better and better looking, and after a lot of walking and eating, I'm always glad to home after it's over.