Fairly

Have I mentioned before that I really like the Ohio State Fair? I like it a lot. Well, at least, I like it enough to take a day off work to go, spend most of a day there, eat the caloric equivalent of three squares there (give or take a fried Oreo and a couple Tom Thumb donuts), tell everyone I see for a week afterward how great it was, and then blog about it. I think that's a lot.

If you haven't been to the Ohio State Fair before, here's a (buttery) taste of what you're missing:



View from the skyride. Note the parade marching past below.




One of those spinny rides I don't ride.

I would, however, buy teacups like those for my kitchen, if they came in non-giant sizes.

I owe thanks to Steph for inviting me to tag along with her group for the day at the Fair. She and I have sort of an informal tradition of attending the Fair together every year. I think it started when she was in Ohio State Fair Youth Choir and I visited her there.

About that time, I realized the Fair was much, much more than just carnival rides, cheesy demonstrations of overpriced and unnecessary kitchen gadgets, fried foods, and livestock. I mean, it is all of those things, but it's much, much more. It is hyperbole. It is summer. It is life in the Midwest. It is Uncle Sam on stilts, his legs parted like an arch while an old woman in an electric wheelchair motors under his tall legs and then pumps her fist in the air, triumphantly giving a 'thumbs up.' I swear.

And, it is this: