Tyler Fair ‘12

We recently participated in the second annual fall visit to-

the East Texas State Fair and my brother’s home in Tyler.

The number one priority for two small people was the rides.  Tate wasn’t feeling his best on Friday night, so I stayed home with him while almost everyone else went out to ride and eat.  We went back on Saturday so Tate could experience the excitement of driving a fire truck, car, boat, train…he was born for waving in parades.  Rush could have spent all day on those rides, completely forgetting about the cotton candy we previously discussed. 

We didn’t go all out on the fair food, because I would need to take about eight showers after eating a deep fried Kit-Kat, and I really just don’t have the energy for that. 

But here we are cracking up when Trent presented a brief monologue “-“I want to eat fair food, but I really shouldn’t, but I think we should get a funnel cake.”  Really, who can pass up funnel cake?  Funnel cake + tacos + lemonade = everyone is happy.

I really think we hit all the main fair facets:  rides, food, exhibit hall-

livestock-

-and carnival games.  I missed Trent’s multiple tries Friday night on Jacob’s Ladder.  Maybe he can build one at home, practice like Wayne Frake in State Fair, and defeat it next year.

It’s always nice to visit my little brother, although as Rush would say HE’S NOT LITTLE!  He’ll always be a little brother to me.

Signs of the Age

I was at the gym last week and the music playing was the Sirius XM Lithium station, 90’s music.  I was associating a Pearl Jam song with a high school dance when I looked around the room and realized that everyone in the room was thinking that’s my jam to one song or another.  Then today I found myself humming along to a Jewel song at the grocery store.  It kind of seems like grocery stores should still be playing The Who or Simon and Garfunkel.  The music of my teenage years has become the background music of 10 AM. 

An Unrelated Reminder to Never Say Never:

That’s 10:30 PM as Trent readies the coals and heads inside to set his alarm for 2 AM to take the meat off the smoker.  Trent’s the man who within the past two years said he would never be someone who smokes meat because he didn’t want to be waking up in the middle of the night to keep the smoke going.  Future middle of the night wake-ups can likely be avoided with careful planning.

I’m getting the fall make-over bug.  It’s hard to fully appreciate how oppressive the summer heat is until I start to come back to life when the temperatures drop to the low 90’s.  Time for the two easiest make-overs:  moving furniture and a haircut.  I just need to figure out if I really want short hair again or if it’s just all the 90’s music messing with my head.  I guess I won’t know for sure until I pick a potential haircut picture:  will it be a current celebrity or just a copy of my high school graduation photo?

Endeavor

If there is one amazing thing that mankind has done, it’s creating a shuttle that hurtles into space on a rocket, then is ferried on an airplane if it needs to travel from one state to another.  I have always, always loved that the shuttle hitches a ride on a plane, but never dreamed I would actually get to see one of those flights.  That is, until yesterday when I heard Endeavor would be flying over Houston and landing at Ellington Field.  The boys and I went out on an adventure this morning to see it.

There it is, circling around the airport.  It made a few very low, very amazing passes right in front of the crowd before landing and parking right in front of us. 

Seeing the shuttle ferry was everything I dreamed it would be and more.  The only dark cloud on the day is how completely inappropriate it is that the shuttle is just stopping for a quick visit in Houston and not staying here forever. 

I Could Go For That

Once I decided to become anorexic.  It was during my first year in the workforce, when our office had not yet moved downtown and was located in a depressing building next to a park-n-fly by the airport.  My boss, while very nice, seemed to think I was Ryan the Temp from the early days of The Office.  As the youngest member of the department, I was consistently volunteered for absurd tasks, like acting as a hobo in a United Way fundraiser variety show.   The very worst was when the CEO’s executive secretary was on vacation for a week, and my boss volunteered me to do her job so that our department wouldn’t lose access to the CEO while she was gone.  The entirety of my executive secretary skills came from a previous job as a runner and file clerk for a law firm, when I would fill in for the receptionist when she was out.  On those days the paralegals would bring me stacks of magazines and I would spend all day at the reception desk, answering the phone, drinking coffee, and reading US Weekly. 

In this situation, however, the real executive secretary, afraid I was after her job, had blocked me out of the CEO’s calendar and e-mail and locked all her desk drawers.  It happened that the week that I was playing executive secretary was also the week of Hurricane Katrina. Refineries and chemical plants were shut down all over the coast, everyone wanted to talk to the CEO, including the media and the White House, and here I am. 

The silver lining was that I did end up on a first name basis with the CEO.  When I had finally left my credit department position and moved into the –by petrochemical standards- much more glamorous department of Base Chemicals, I was able to do things like sit next to him at a work dinner at my favorite, fancy downtown restaurant, chatting about when he lived in Stavanger, Norway and my visit to Stravanger.  At the time I was on my –not- first glass of wine and was confusing Stavanger (industrial area) with Sunnhordland (region housing Bomlo, the beautiful Norwegian island and my ancesteral home…and even now I’m not even sure that’s the right long-word-starting-with-an-S region of Norway).  So I’ve never actually visited Stravanger, but we had a good chat.  All this would have been very helpful had my goal been Global Oil Industry Domination and not Quit As Soon As I Have A Baby.

But it was in the midst of commuting past 24-hour adult video stores to the airport everyday to be Ryan the Temp in the credit department of a petrochemical company that gave me the idea to be anorexic.  I thought it would be an effective cry for help to get me out of my job with the side effect of getting really skinny.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of starting my plan on a Friday when I was off work, so I was only anorexic for about two hours, or until I was presented with the opportunity of a bowl of queso.

Which brings me to my point:  Doesn’t queso, restaurant queso with really thin chips, sound so good right now?

A Sunday Night

We received a letter from our homeowner’s association this week asking us to address an alleged issue on our property:  “There are miscellaneous items that need to be removed.”  That was the full description.  Very graphic. 

On Friday someone asked me what we’ve been up to lately.  What have we been up to lately?  The days are full, but it’s hard to pinpoint where they are going.  The boys are loving school and are exhausted on their home days.  We went to Froberg’s Farm for vegetables one day, played in the cul-de-sac a few times, played in the backyard without sweating out every ounce of fluid in our bodies.

We have been to Barnes and Noble a few times lately because the boys love to play with the trains.  The train table is conveniently located next to the young readers’ biography section, so I can simultaneously read a biography and keep an eye on Rush and Tate.  600 page biographies seem really excessive after getting a nice overview written on a 3rd grade level.  I find that I approach children’s biographies the same way I approach Time magazine, flipping past long articles about foreign affairs or the economy and starting with the culture section. So I’ve picked up the biographies of Jim Henson, J.K. Rowling, and Dr. Seuss, but haven’t made it to any world leaders yet.

Oh, we watched The Lorax on Friday.  Cute movie, but doesn’t really capture the 'oh shit, we’re doomed, I’m going to be worrying about this at 3 AM’ vibe of the book.

Today was a great Sunday. Sunday school started again after a summer hiatus, so I’m back with the high schoolers.  Rush and Tate are in a class together and were both very proud of the sheep that they made out of cotton balls.  After church, we went out for hamburgers, thereby avoiding cooking and lunch dishes.  I threw aside any notions of cleaning my closet or working on crafts to spend the boys entire nap time curled up in an old comforter, reading.  After naps we ran some errands as a family.  I was trying on a pair of shoes in a store and Trent kept asking if they felt good.  I kept trying to explain that women’s shoes don’t necessarily have to feel good to buy them.  The question is, are they going to be unbearably painful?  I think women walking around a shoe store aren’t thinking, do these feel good?  They’re thinking, how much walking will I be doing and can I make these work?  Society is a strange thing.

On our last stop before heading home, I bought a big pack of licorice.  Rush was disappointed by the candy and starting asking for a vitamin, because if he was disappointed by the candy I purchased then a vitamin laced gummy car was the next best thing.  Tate spent about twenty minutes munching on his one stick (twirl?) of licorice.  During our free-for-all Sunday night dinner, Rush just had bread, which he passed out communion style for anyone who would put out their hands, “like at church.”

And quickly a day of rest is going to become Monday, so…

My Sunny Spot on the Bed

A few evenings ago Trent and I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for the millionth time, setting off a predictable chain of events.  I’ve watched the next four movies this week, two and a half of them today.  Deathly Hallows Part 2 just ended, which means I’m going to end up at the bookshelf with that book as soon as I get out of this chair.  I’ll start reading the chapter at King’s Cross, then decide I need to start a little earlier and flip back a few chapters, possibly back to Bill and Fleur’s wedding.  After reading bits and pieces of that book, or possibly the whole thing out of order, I’ll pick up another book from the series and read it start to finish.  Inevitably, I’m in for reading at least five of the seven books.

When were were in high school, my sister had a yellow comforter on her bed, which was under an upstairs window.  It made for an especially sunny spot that was a favorite place for our cats to nap.  One day my brother walked by, and seeing that Bjorn (our Norwegian cat) had been napping all day, exclaimed, “Bjorn, is this what you do with your life?!”

I might just start with Goblet of Fire and go from there.

Switcharoo

Some years summer becomes fall abruptly and swiftly, when the a hovering tropical storm grounds you to the living room and the first sounds of NFL football chime on Saturday.  But some years, Labor Day weekend is one glorious last summer hurrah, when the beach is more beautiful than ever, you make strawberry milkshakes and your brother shows up with jet skis.

Word of warning to anyone who hasn’t been to Galveston’s new Pleasure Pier, which technically includes us:

Wristbands are $26.  Not a terrible deal for an all day ride pass, but disappointing when I naively stuffed a twenty in my pocket thinking we could get some ice cream and walk around.  At least we had a leisurely stroll down the seawall on our way to the ferry.

Summer ended with the most beautiful, all day in a sandy bathing suit weekend.  And now, here we are-

The Cowboys are playing the Giants, apparently, because why limit football to the Saturday, Sunday, Monday night, and possibly Thursday?  It’s Wednesday, and the sounds of fall have arrived.  I’m digging the box of fall decorations out of the garage tomorrow.