almost time to do the puyallup!

I love fairs. Carnivals, amusement parks, Saturday markets...any excuse to spend money on things sold out of tents and devour my own weight in fried anything. By my estimation, my local Washington state fair beats 'em all (and has the distinction of owning www.thefair.com).

Yep, with the Puyallup fast approaching, (that's pew-AL-up to out-of-towners) I'm getting excited, once again, to see my name on a grain of rice, eat an entire onion blossom (as big as my head! Drenched in mystery white sauce! Pipin hot!), drink lemonade out of a keepsake cup shaped like the Space Needle, stop by the radio station booth for a bumper sticker, buy bootleg cell phone accessories and try, yet again, to come up with a really good reason to buy a spa...or a fireplace...or new vinyl windows...or a VitaMix...

For years, a day at the fair has been the grown up equivalent to a "Mommy-and-Me" play day. Mom and I make the drive down south, enjoy a loud, karaoke style cd sing-a-long during the ride, pay exorbitant rates to part ridiculously long distances from the entrance, and enjoy a full day of grange-gazing, jewelry-buying, mushroom burger-eating, ferris wheel-riding, sheep-petting and - the best part - PEOPLE WATCHING.

There's something about a fair (at least a fair in area code 253) that brings out the strangest blend of people this side of Nascar country...I didn't realize we had so many hicks, hillbillies and knuckle-dragging types living up here in the "Iced-grande-half-caf-no-whip-soy-caramel-macciato-sipping, wi-fi-cruising, SLK hard top-driving, craftsman style home-remodeling, tennis club/kayak club/bike club/hair club membership-flaunting and 32-foot Beneteau-sailing" greater Seattle area. Apparently, they keep to themselves until The Fair comes through town (dragging Hilary Duff with it year after year after year). Mom and I will find a spot in the sun with a caramel apple and fruit smoothie and watch people walk past for hours at a time.

We watch mismatched couples argue (our favorite), watch angry parents drag strollers, watch tired kids beg for a fried Twinkie, old ladies in wheelchairs with oxygen tanks sleep in the shade ("I may be dying but I don't want to miss Herman's Hermits at the grandstand..."), droves of long-legged, skinny-hipped, big-footed 13 year-old girls in halter tops tug at their jeans and their hair and cruise for hunky 16 year-old guys with bad hair...we could do it all day.

Traditionally, we end the day with an elephant ear and a big bottle of milk...it's dark, they're trying to get rid of every body, the bathrooms are ridiculously crowded, no one can remember where they parked...it's great.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun since the fair doesn't get rollin for another month, but I can't help it...all of those miracle brooms and hydrosonic jewelry cleaners to browse!