Memoir

This summer I went to the Minnesota State Fair to see Kelly Clarkson with my friends Jordan and Sara. We went on Sunday, August 30th in the morning. Chloe and my dad went too. My dad drove us down to the cities, where we found a park-and-ride. We rode a bus to the fairgrounds and started meandering around. Soon we ran into Kara, one of Jordan’s and my friends. Kara is hard to miss, since she towers over just about everyone else.

After we saw Kara, we continued wandering around. We walked into the Grandstand and looked at all the fishing rods, faucets, cabinets, and quilts. We stopped by the Schmitt Music “stand” and played the pianos, staying out of actual customers’ ways and making sure not to spill our lemonade and donuts on them. As we left, the pianos stared back longingly, wishing for a home.

We floated around for a while before stopping at a shop that was selling carved gems and stones. Jordan bought a worry stone, and I bought a mini amethyst bear and spinner necklace. We kept on walking, munching on our donuts, and hopped on a trolley.

We passed radio stations, dog shows, and spinning monkeys before seeing the Giant Slide. We bought tickets and rushed to the top, finding spots next to each other so that we could race down. With me in the middle, Jordan on my right and Sara on my left, we swooshed down and slid to a stop. Jordan had finished first, but said she only did so because of the amazingly hard push that she got from the slide starter-people.

After Jordan’s near-whiplashing, we wandered around before seeing the sky-ride. Sara ran to the end of the line, with Jordan and me at her tail. We were behind some weird wanna-be something teenagers, and waited. As we slowly crept up the hill, we called Aria and laughed when she hung up the first time we called. We called her back and talked until we got to the front of the line. Jordan slinked into the sky ride first, then me, then Sara. We waited until the door closed, then watched as the fair passed below our feet.

I was the first to see the electronic sign on the Grandstand proclaiming that Kelly Clarkson was sick. Sara and Jordan immediately thought I was lying (which I WASN’T!) and waited for the tree blocking our view to get out of the way. “No way. This can NOT be happening” grumbled Jordan. The sky ride made the loop and rounded back to our stop, and we jumped off and ran to tell my dad and Chloe, who were waiting nearby.

After we told them, we found out that Eric Hutchinson would still be performing for ticket holders (for free), so we decided to kill the hours that we had left. Sara suggested that we go to the horse barn and look at all the show horses. As we walked past, we stared at the show horses, occasionally coming to one that was social enough to let us pet them. Sara took dozens of photos of them, including the horses that tried to bite us.

The horses only kept us occupied for so long, so we decided to go to the barns with all the cute little animals. As we walked up to the door, we narrowly avoided getting run over by cows, tractors, trucks, and trailers and safely stepped on the sidewalk. Apparently not getting run over by an angry cow wasn’t enough for one guy, because he decided to go stick a dollar in the cow’s poop to see if anyone picked it up (someone did). We looked at all the calves, miniature horses, pigs, and sheep before washing our hands and getting milkshakes.

After the barn we still had about an hour until Eric Hutchinson performed, so we ate and walked around some more. Some random lady walking by dropped some of her tickets for the Midway, but we couldn’t get them back to her so we decided, eh… why not?, and used the tickets. We went on the Scrambler a couple of times, and decided that we were the favorites of the guy operating the ride.

We finally got to the concert and saw Eric Hutchinson perform. He was a little dorkier looking than we thought he would be, but he was awesome. We had seats up in the back, and even with the giant screens, had a little trouble seeing him. It all turned out fine; because apparently not all Kelly Clarkson fans are Eric Hutchinson fans. Half of the stadium was empty, and we were invited to come down. The three of us ended up with seats in the fifth row and started screaming our heads off. We didn’t start screaming necessarily because we knew the songs (because we didn’t) but because we were trying to lose our voices (which we didn’t).

It was so much fun and I hope I can go again next year!

So B. It

I’m reading So B. It, by Sarah Weeks. The main character’s name is Heidi and she lives with her mother and Bernadette. Bernadette is Heidi’s neighbor, technically, but Bernadette takes care of Heidi because her mother is unable to. Heidi’s mom is So B. It. She has this name because when Bernadette (or Bernie or Dette) asked her what her name was, she just kept saying, “So be it.”, and so Bernie changed it into a real name.
I think that I am like Heidi because we both have a lucky streak, though mine is not nearly as good as hers is. She uses hers for slots because her mother cannot work and Bernie only has so much money. Bernie also has agoraphobia*, so she couldn’t do the slots instead of Heidi. We both are mistaken as older than we are quite frequently. Heidi and I are also both kind of thickheaded with what we want, but I would not go to the lengths that she did such as when she wanted to know what the mysterious soof is that her mother occasionally mentions. Heidi buys a bus ticket to Liberty, New York, which is a place where she saw a picture of her mother and possibly her grandmother.
I think that everyone has a Bernadette in their life. Dette is an awesome person who does everything she can to help people. She is patient, kind, and a great role model. Dette has some humorous sayings that may not make sense to people, but you get the general idea, and it’s always supportive. Dette also is a bit of a cat person, but I think that there’s a little bit of one in all of us. ;)

* In Bernie’s case of agoraphobia, she is afraid to go outside at all. Period. End of story. Agoraphobia is defined as the fear of being somewhere that help might not be available. For many people with agoraphobia places like bridges, large crowds, and/or of being outside alone may scare them.