noodlies at the fair

from the moment my eyes opened they longed to be shut again and shut tight.  they burned.  why did i stay up until 2 am watching so you think you can dance? mmmm... maybe because i suck and i love to punish myself.  sarah's eyes burned too.   apparently she had also stayed up until 2am because she also sucks.  but we t-tapped on the deck anyways and afterwards it felt good.  i read my scriptures, sarah made our breakfast shakes, we both showered.  but somehow by the time i was in the car on the way to the fair in armstrong, the feeling, the need for sleep had returned and had returned ten times stronger than before.  i confessed to sarah that i felt weak and limp and my limbs had no ability to move.  i slumped in my seat and looked at the world through half closed lids.  sarah confessed to me that she had a very real desire to sleep at that very instant.  we are noodles, i said.  i'm a broad egg noodle.  i'm lasagna, i said.  i'm cannoli, added sarah.

we parked in a field, directed by cheerful volunteers. we decided the pleasant senior who took our monies was married to the man with twisted rope like arms and a very baggy neon vest who directed us into our spot.  it took some will power and effort to actually move my noodliness out of the car, but i did it.  we tramped along until the tractor pulled shuttle met us and we climbed aboard.  the boys went straight to the back.  whatever happens happens we said to each other.

the boys were so excited to go on the rides.  sarah payed an arm and a leg to get them both all day passes.  i bought a sheet of 20 tickets for us to share for some primo rides of our choice. adriel randomly got stung by a wasp on his face.  first stop was the merrygoround.  then it became apparent that sarah and i needed sustenance to power our noodle bodies and we needed it urgently. so we did a careful survey of the food court field and both decided on pulled pork burritos.  i got them while sarah got the boys chicken tenders and fries.  i finished mine before she got back.  wasps bugged us.  the sun came out and warmed us.  some men sang some country on the stage in the front.

the sun went away.

as we were leaving the food area i had to stop at the hawaiin shaved ice booth.  i got tiger's blood, which is coconut and strawberry.  the ice was soft and supple.  i met up with sarah and boys and andrea in the rabbitry.  andrea came with us.  she was wearing a green t-shirt and a cute single french braid.  we watched the boys go on many rides and slumped noodle-like on benches.  andrea kept running into people she knew and eventually she left us.  i went on one spinny type ride with the boys.  adriel went on the gravatron a lot.  sloan favoured the mini helluvator.

late afternoon found sarah and i, madelaine and andrea on a bench in the kid's ride area.  sarah and i were listless and sososososososo tired.  this did not stop us from doing a random cabin feverish video on rhiannon's friend's phone which madelaine was holding. you can see a snippet of it on instagram if you so chose.  we decided to use our tickets and go on the sky master.  it was madelaine's favourite ride.  how bad could it be?  it looked kind of like two small pirate ships that go all the way around.  the pirate ship's fun right?

adriel decided to come with us and he went with madelaine.  sarah and i almost instantly regretted our decision. like we were belted in and not moving and we were wishing we could get out.  how could our noodly bodies take it?  once the ride started, i started screaming my head off and not in the 'this is so fun' kind of way, but more like the 'freakity freak' kind of way.  at one point when we were being mercilessly hung upside down, i heard sarah yelling "i hate this!" which made me laugh and was the only enjoyable thing about the ride.  as sarah said, it made your guts go into your head and then left your guts behind.  there were never two more grateful noodles when the ride started winding down.  my arms were stiff from clenching.  it took all our remaining strength to slither and slide shakily out of the ride and back down to solid ground.  adriel loved it.

sarah bought 2 horse blankets and we et them.

not long after, it started to rain.  hard. we hung out under the shelter of various game and food tent awnings and navigated puddles and mud slicks.  eventually we ended up in the rodeo stands watching clydesdales pull heavy things.  we were very high up and madelaine pointed out to me that one could very easily fall to their deaths below the stands at which point, every move the children made, made me nervous.

we decided to leave and gave the boys one more ride of their choice.  of course as we left the sun came out.

as we were driving home sarah confessed that it was all she could do to stay awake while driving.  so we decided to tell stories.  the kind of stories where we each say a sentence.   what we came up with was a collection of increasingly bizarre tales that always ended suddenly and tragically.  my favourite was the tale of the two brothers ploan and pladriel who had bobble head problem.  it bugged people so much that some people burried their heads in the sand when they saw it and other people hit themselves in the head with fishes. the brothers went to a wise old owl to find out what to do.  the wise owl bit off their heads.  the end.

we laughed so hard about the fishes part.  the kind of laugh that comes when you are tired and you feel too weak to laugh but you can't stop laughing.  we were very near hysterics.

we were both pleasantly surprised at how good we looked despite inner noodliness.

that night we had wraps with homemade tortillas for the 3rd night in a row. we had a mixture of pulled pork and chicken, with spinach and cherry tomatoes and feta and guac.  i made some very garlically hummus to add to the mix.  oh and a drizzle of the little creek dressing and it was the best wrap ever.  i also had a bowl of the previous day's gazpacho.

my cold was at full misery stage.

we watched more anne of green gables until we could not fight the tiredness any longer.  it was only 10:30 but it felt like 1am.  just before going to bed we saw on instagram that rhiannon had posted our video.  we laughed hard leaning against the walls for strength.  i was once again pleased with how good my hair looked.

the end.