Because I am slightly melancholy over the ending of elementary school, I insisted we all go, as a family, to the State Fair. We didn't buy advance tickets, and we didn't have a free evening. So we skipped something (soccer, I think) and I took out $700 cash from the ATM, and off we went. Daddy was to take the bus and meet us.

As we walked in, earlier drama over too much homework and whatever happened at school that day melted away into memory. Someone smiled at me and asked if I wanted an admission ticket. Sure! Later, someone asked us if we wanted their leftover ride tickets. Yes! "Good Karma", my daughter assured me.

(We went one day earlier than Paul Friedrich, he of Onion Head Monster fame. Which was too bad, as his day-long experiment? performance art piece? heart attack- inducement exercise? fascinated me.)

My son ate:

Half of a funnel cake sprinkled with another half pound of powdered sugar

a foot-long hot dog

an apple (from one of the exhibits on agriculture that I thrust upon my young charges)

a deep-fried Snickers bar

(He had a lot of gas that night.)

The children's favorite rides involved them going high in the air, in circles. One ride, a favorite for years, is a hanglider-type contraption. Watching them soar over the fair was fairly magical, and worth the traffic and depleted bank account.

Daddy met us without too much trouble, having taken the bus from his swanky new downtown office. We only argued about what and where to eat for 15 minutes, a family record! And all agreed to go see the cows and bunnies. I didn't get to see the gardening competition...but only because I felt like my feet were going to separate from my ankles (for exercise that day I walked for an hour...dumb. Just finding that hanglider ride was over a mile trek).

The fair was a pretty Republican-seeming place...but there were the occasional Democratic stickers, and usually on people who looked less urban than I might have thought. I saw most of the Dems in the Village of Yesteryear. What does THAT mean?

We parked far away from the fair, which was not only free, but that much closer to our house. Home in 10 minutes, then showers to wash off that special brand of fair grime. My son, who spent a good portion of his fair time on the GROUND, got a Mommy-scrubbing. Ewww. And we read books and drifted off, and another fall is upon us and the leaves turn and the children grow and the days are shorter than ever.