State Fair :-D

This is to be a post of Smiley faces, with a few explanations for the clarification of things. Moving on.



:). I sat next to Ruth Peterson on the bus ride down to the state fair. We talked, and read. I was comfortable, both in my seat, and in the knowledge that I had plenty of reading material. (My main requirement, of course. Pajamas are entirely optional.)



: - S. I was a bit nervous. You see, I had to perform my Piano piece the first night, after an all-day bus ride, and no time to warm up. Uh huh, I was nervous. Uh huh, I screwed it up. Uh huh, I tried (rather unsuccessfully) to cover it up.



8-O/ :-D /:-) (With some shrieking and jumping up and down...) May I have a drum roll please? Dun Dun DUNNNNNN! I won Grand Champion! Whoooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooey! Was I ever thrilled! I'm pretty sure I flew to have my picture taken, and tell Mom & Co. (Being sisters, brother, and friend Ruth.) I was so excited!



:-O/:-) The fireworks were beautiful that first night, as we walked around the fair, finding our favorite food booths for future reference. I felt a bit like Sam Gamgee..."The finest rockets ever seen, they burst in stars of blue and green. Or after thunder, golden showers came falling like a rain of flowers. Only that doesn't do them justice..." (J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring.)



:-T. It took forever to fall asleep that first night, in the barrak...Ahem...dorms. There were roughly three hundred girls, the bunks were end to end, and about three and one half feet apart.



:-/. The loudspeaker came on at 6 a.m. to wake us up. Ugh. Ew. Bleh. Disgusting. Revolting. And we had to get up cuz breakfast was from 7 to 8. Do you have any idea how loud a loudspeaker can be when you're pleasantly drowsy, and it's perfectly dark outside? Uh huh, exactly. Only louder.



l - /. That's me eating with me eyes closed. I was tired. Oh, but breakfast was a sausage/egg muffin thingy, so it was pretty good, what little I actually saw.



:-, That is me walking around the state fair with a sort of bunched up half smile. Use your imagination. I walked until about 11, but then the girls had kitchen duty (Mwah ha ha! They helped wash dishes until from about 10:45 a.m. until 2 p.m.) and I had to perform my piano song once again (with the other Grand Champion winners) for a sort of concert. This time no butterflies. Just happy-go-lucky me. Yay! It was fun.



:-) The rest of the after noon, I just slept and read. (Hey, they woke us up at 6 and they didn't turn the lights off until 11, and then not all the way, so I had an excuse.) I worked my way through Urchin and the Heartstone (M. I. Mcallister)and started Blue like Jazz (Donald Miller), having already finished The Yearling (Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.) Supper also deserves the same contented smile. We had...Hmmm. Can't remember. Oh well.



:-D We were walking around the fair again, and I sampled some Cheese Curds. They were delicious, but I shared with Kiara. (Ok, I tried. We accidentally dropped the dish and I shared mostly with the street.) There was a dance for the 4-Her's that Mom had to chaperone, so we had to go back to the 4-H Hilton. (Where the dorms were.) I went to the dance too. I actually participated in the "Cha cha slide". Other than that, I had a snack and some water, and hung out on that floor just to say I'd been to the dance. Whoohoo. Yippee. Nope. Kiara had a blast though, she really cut the rug.



,:-< We were awakened at 6 a.m. again, (horrible) and greated with a lame joke. (Ok, the lame joke was at lights out, but so what?) "Why did the monkey cross the playground? To get to the other slide!" No. Not all 4-Her's are this lame. Just the top of the top, the State Ambies. (Don't ask...)



:-) We're going home! I could have cheered. I probably did. To delirious to remember. No, it wasn't a horrible experience, it was wonderful. But I didn't wear the same shirt twice, and sometimes not even a full day, because it was sooooo hot that any shirt was sweat soaked in no time flat. I even had to wash my dress (which I wore for a total of two performances...)



:-(. The most unthinkable, unimaginable, horrific, terrible, despicable, and night-mare-ish thing happened on the way home. Any guesses? I ran out of books!! Yes, I nearly wept. I nearly died. But somehow, miraculously, I survived to tell the story.

Well, there you have it. My tale of twin cities.

Toodles!

Chucky