The Final Fair Post ~ Behind the Scenes

Well, I am munching on vitamin-rich sweet mini peppers and am sipping on my third bottle of water of the day. Breakfast was a homemade fruit smoothie predominantly featuring Greek yogurt. I think I inadvertently skipped lunch, unless an apple and peanut butter counts.

I have gotten my hair cut, had my final physical therapy appointment for my knee, and grabbed a great nap during my monthly acupuncture appointment. I haven’t walked any distance worth measuring because the couch is too inviting.

And this, friends, is what Post-Fair Recovery and Detox looks like.

Well, more precisely, this is what it looks like:

With a couple day’s distance and rest, I can sincerely say I had many moments of enormous fun and unrestrained happiness during the Fair. (FAIR COURT!!! And LLAMAS!! TOGETHER!!!)

Posting it one more time because I can.  Best Day at the Fair!!!

But to be honest, it was a bit of a rough go this year.


A few distractions
As I kept trying to figure out why I was so tired so early into the 10 Fabulous Days of Fair, Rob repeatedly reminded me that I had a cranky knee I didn’t entirely trust and a house full of disruption from that annoying mold water leak thing from May (yes, it is still a part of our lives. Here’s hoping for a return to normal by Sept 1!). So I started out at something of a weary disadvantage.

My knee actually ended up surprising me. It was a champ! It let me walk an average of 3.35 miles per day, and it managed going up the stairs in the Grandstands just fine. Even when I wasn’t holding the railing because I was carrying food. Imagine that, me carrying food. At the Fair.

I still hobbled down the stairs, though, and had to contort to safely navigate the ridiculously high bleachers in the horse arena. But aside from one wiggly jiggly moment getting out of the car on the first day, my knee did great. My physical therapist told me yesterday that I still have a little ways to go but we agreed that I can get there myself with a return to my daily exercises and stretches. YAY!!!

As for the re-construction of our bathroom and game room, it was more of a distraction than I realized. There were several mornings we had contractors in our house serenading me with air compressors and Russian talk radio while I was trying to write and rejuvenate.

Other mornings we were sort of hanging around waiting for workers to come and go so that we didn’t have to sequester the cats in some guest bedrooms all day.  And then there were the morning when the cats were exasperatingly aware of our plan and insisted on taunting us from under the middle of our bed.  Nicely played, Zak and Sarah (mostly Sarah).

One day we entered the Fair while on the phone with our contractor discussing the pros and cons of epoxy grout. A critical decision at that moment, but it really wasn’t where I wanted my head to be while trying to bask in the glory of The Fair.

So yeah, it was sort of hard to be All Fair All the Time with all that fun swirling about.



It’s not supposed to be a job
I also had a bit of a roller coaster with the blogging this year. I enjoy it immensely, but at times it started to lose its joy and instead sort of felt like an obligation. I’m talking about the newspaper gig.

Because I didn’t want to write about the same stuff as last year, I found myself working hard to find new stories or different angles on old ones. I had a blast learning about the Mounted Patrol (thanks again, Pam and Larissa!). And about how a bunch of local contractors volunteered to build a schmancy new office for the Junior Livestock Auction (thanks for the tip and the tour, Martti!). But as I was searching out new things to write about, I found myself thinking more like a reporter than a blogger. And I don’t want to be a reporter. Nor am I trained to be one.

There were also several times when I wasn’t enjoying or watching the Fair in front of me because I had my nose in my laptop trying to get a story or photo to load. This made me grumpy. The Fair and writing about it are both such joys for me. I don’t want it to be work and I don’t want to miss moments of happy because of some self-assigned sense of newspaper blogger duty.

And so, unless I change my mind drastically in the months to come, I think this was my last year blogging for the newspaper. That was actually a source of some of the tears as we left the Fair on the last night. In the midst of the tears, I handed myself my resignation and said good-bye to a hoot of a run with the local news source. They have been very kind and supportive and generous, and I have so appreciated the opportunity to share my love of the Fair with a wider audience. But my bloated, gurgling gut is telling me it’s time to close the gates and call it a day.



It was worth a shot
In an attempt to get more sleep this year, I decided I would write in the mornings AFTER sleeping... instead of my past Fairs approach of writing and then crawling into bed at 3:00am or 4:00am. It seemed so logical, this sleep then write thing, that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before.

Well, it’s because it doesn’t work.

I gave it a shot the first few nights. I almost felt like I was playing hooky when I came home, took a shower, and then went to bed.

I woke up at a decent hour, with 6 or 7 glorious, previously unheard of hours of sleep behind me, and settled in to write and….blank.

I quickly discovered that the energy of the day’s activities got muted with sleep. I found myself having to consult my notes and my photos the next morning to remember what had thrilled me the day before. It just took a little more effort and the words didn’t come as easily.

There were also a few nights when I went to bed without writing and I just couldn’t not write. I was laying there in bed, composing sentences and descriptions and captions for the Feast Parade. So I gave up, got out of bed, and started typing.

I eventually settled into a very good compromise that allowed for both energetic words and meaningful sleep. I would come home and write and then deal with the photos and the captions in the morning. The photos always take a chunk of time, both to select and to upload (yay slow DSL in the boonies!). So this actually worked very well.

I am mostly telling you this so I can read it next year and remind myself how to do it right. (Hi, Toni in 2016!)



Let’s face it, you are what you eat
The whole food thing this year fascinated me. I was dumbfounded that I had so many issues early on! No, seriously, I was truly surprised.

Now, in retrospect, I’m not sure why I thought I could jump in on Day 1 and follow up grilled cheese, corn on the cob, a snow cone, and a frozen banana with some fried chicken and deep fried cookie dough and not have “issues.” But issues I did have. Oh, boy did I have. Without going into gory details, I will just say that the wee hours of that first night can best be described with three words: “dry heaves” and “Gas-X.”

I have long said that one of the reasons I ask Rob to take pictures of me eating all of this crappy food is because I know my day will come when for whatever reason (diabetes, clogged arteries, no teeth) I will no longer be able to eat junk like this. So when that day comes, I shall have many many MANY photographic memories of the good ‘ol eatin’ days.

I will admit I am starting to wonder if that day is closer than I think.

Another interesting development this year was my skin. After several days of inhaling sugar and grease and fat, I started to notice that the skin on my face looked different. It was sort of leathery and saggy and grey-ish. Not in any dramatic way, but enough that I took note of it.

With just two days now of pounding water and a return to dietary sanity, I can already see signs of improvement. My skin has better color and it just looks more…hydrated?

I still have several days to go, I suspect, before everything returns to normal. And I am thankful that things will return to normal because eating all that crap really did make me feel and look sort of crappy.



Say cheese!
A few friends have very generously commented that the pictures of me eating are attractive given the subject matter. That is a huge compliment and an even bigger relief. Because I gotta tell you, it takes work to get a photo of someone eating and not have it be gross or unappealing or offensive in some way.

Eating, as I have found, is a surprisingly personal and somewhat intimate activity. So having a photo taken while engaged in this activity is actually somewhat nerve-wracking. It can be a vulnerable moment, as well as a self-conscious one if people happen to be watching.

Note observer in plastic apron.  At least she looks amused and
not all judgmental like that woman when I was eating
the hot dog.

This is one of the very many reasons why I am so grateful for Rob. He has become quite adept at taking appropriate Fair Food Feast photos and doing it quickly so I am not too embarrassed. Or maybe he just wants to get the photo shoot over with so he can eat his own food. Whichever. I'm still grateful.

For every photo I post of me eating something, it is safe to assume there were about a dozen photos taken and at least 9 of them deleted for various reasons. Eyes closed, chewed food visible, too much teeth, should be rated at least PG-13 if not higher. For that last one, I will just say that corn dogs and frozen bananas pose their own brand of challenge.

All the really bad ones were deleted before we got home
but here's one that I kept for some unknown reason.
Lovely, right?  At least isn't not a corn dog.

I don’t like me right now either
Ok, so I promised I would share how much weight I gained with all the ridiculous eating I did during the Fair. I have tracked both my weight and my mileage for the past three years. I am astounded by the results.

Ready?

In 2013, I walked an average of 3.59 miles per day and gained 2.6 pounds.
In 2014, I walked an average of 3.65 miles per day and gained 2.6 pounds.
This year, I walked an average of 3.35 miles per day and gained 2.6 pounds.

There are so many reasons this makes me shake my head. And I agree with you, it is just plain wrong and it isn’t fair.

So because the results are freakishly consistent…and because I know I have some friends right now who are trying really hard not to hate me…I think this might be the last year I track my poundage. I will continue to wear my pedometer, though, because “what gets measured gets done” and walking is very good for my back.  Among other things it seems.



In conclusion...
So that's that. I guess Fair 2015 is officially over. And I truly am sad despite some of the bumps and rough spots this year. When I was crying in the car on Sunday night, Rob wisely assured me that the exhaustion and bloating behind some of the tears would soon give way to reveal the true delight and joy and blast-and-a-half I had at my beloved Fair. Just two days later, he's right. Again.

Woodhaven Ramblings will now return to the odd and quirky topics that I am desperate to write about the rest of the year. Rest assured that I will be back next August in some capacity writing about my Fair. Maybe with the newspaper, maybe not. Maybe daily, maybe not. But definitely with joy and enthusiasm. And hopefully all body parts and rooms in the house in proper working order.

Thanks so much to all of you who came along for the Fair ride. I am so grateful for your comments and encouragement and shared laughter. There is no bigger compliment than when you tell me, "I felt like I was there. And next year I want to come, too!" Because the Clark County Fair truly is the Summer's Best Party and I want all my friends to party with me.