Anticipaaa-aaa-tion is making me wait!

I am less than 17 hours away and I have to admit, I’ve got some butterflies in my stomach from all the excitement. My ticket, parking pass, camera, sunscreen, and baseball hat are assembled and ready. The Fair is coming! The Fair is coming!!

It has been quite a build-up the past few weeks. There was that whole Fair contest that wasn’t episode. Which was then followed by a regrouping and a reconsideration and an entry into the second iteration of the contest which…after much hand-wringing and Facebook posting and screen refreshing…culminated in my being handed this:

WHOO HOO!!!! Frankly, it was a MUCH better prize package for me than the prior one. After setting aside what I wanted for my own use, I still had lots to share so it has been a hoot and a half to spread the Fair Fun amongst my friends. And now I have even more room in the budget for FOOD!!

On Tuesday, Rob and I headed over to the fairgrounds so I could turn in three amateur photos I am entering in the Adult Open Class Photography competition. It was so exciting!! A bunch of rides were arriving and being assembled, food stands were being stocked, official people in speedy little golf carts were zipping around, the Exhibition Hall was filled with empty curtained stalls, glass flower vases were cleaned and ready for prized roses and dahlias, and lots of locals were parading about to hand in their photos and paintings and quilts and such. My butterflies fluttered with the palpable sense of anticipation swirling around the East Gate. The Fair is coming! The Fair is coming!!

Later that night, Rob and I became Official Wine Judges for the homemade wine entries. Sounds impressive, huh? Yeah, well, in actuality the only real qualification for being a Fair wine judge is to show up at the right place at the right time. There’s a wide range of wine knowledge and experience amongst the judges. As a judge, it is great fun. As a winemaker, it is quite frustrating. “I don’t like the taste,” isn’t a terribly helpful comment on a judging sheet and yet it’s not uncommon in this contest. So, no, Rob did not enter any wines in our Fair this year. And yes, he will be entering two in our more rigorously judged state fair later in the month.

The judging was quite entertaining. My team of four judged about ten wines. We ended up giving the lowest score of the entire competition to a “White Concord” wine that we concluded tasted like flat club soda. It garnered just 4.63 points out of 20. Our favorite sample was a red blackberry mead. Despite it tasting a lot like smoked sausage, we gave it 15.33 points. We also quite enjoyed the rhubarb liqueur (13 points). Very pretty pink lemonade color and more sweet than tart.

We overheard a judge at a table nearby tell her team she refused to judge any wine – such as was the rhubarb liqueur -- that was “bottled” in a jelly jar. Your loss, toots! This was also the woman who came toting her own array of wine glasses (white, red, dessert), an aerator (for “opening up the wine” – she was told not use it unless she brought one for everyone), and her own crackers to cleanse her palate (the rest of us used Albertson’s branded saltless saltines). I can’t wait to see if she returns next year. In all honesty, though, I did start coveting her glass stash. For some inexplicable reason, we judged using moderately cloudy plastic cups (prior years we have always used wine glasses). The wide opening made it very difficult to smell the wine (narrower openings concentrate aromas), the cloudiness of the cup made it difficult to judge the clarity of the wine, and a lot of the early wines we judged had a hint of plasticiness in their taste. I felt very bad for all of the 62 heart-and-soul-poured-into-it entries. I was tempted to write a little note on each of my judging sheets: “Psst – try the state fair instead!” But I was afraid if I did, Steve wouldn’t give us the two free tickets and parking pass as our “thank you.”

As for my greatest anticipation of the Fair – THE FOOD!! – I had a bit of a scare last night. I have been purposely eating lightly and extra healthfully and have pushed my exercise routine to the limit my back will allow in an effort to lose a few pounds pre-Fair. Just wanting to increase the likelihood my shorts will still fit in 10 days. Although I don’t have any numbers to share, I can tell my plan has been working as my clothes are indeed a bit looser. YAY! So last night, after a Mini Rigatoni Lean Cuisine lunch, I ordered a sour cream-less and dressing-free salad at Wendy’s for dinner along with a milk. Much to my horror, I couldn’t finish the salad. I was full. EEEEEK!!! I now fear I have shrunk my stomach just when I need it stretched to its capacity! So today I had a Five Guys burger AND fries and will have a full plate of Pad See Ew for dinner to see if I can make a little more room before tomorrow’s (TOMORROW’S!!) lunch. OH, how I wish panic made me hungry.