state fair here we come...

We live in Middle America in the midst of corn fields, soy bean fields, pumpkin fields, and hog farms. It is smelly, dusty, dirty and calm. The winds blow harder and stronger than anywhere we have ever lived, the roads stretch for miles and miles to the horizon. To quote Ellis Paul:

Silos, scarecrows, American machine,
rev up your engines you're as fast as a train
Oh my Lord, look how the weather has changed
cyclones, dust storms, blacktop trains
cyclones, dust storms,blacktop trains

But among these corn fields and flatlands I have become an Illinois State Fair junkie. The state fair (which is now the second largest in the nation, having been beat out by Texas a couple of years ago) is one of the best parts of the summer. I have entered the fair every year we have lived here but once. I have placed each year and won ribbons, the year before last winning the first place blue ribbon for my banana bread. I think at this point the word you may be looking for is “hokey”. Yes, it is, but it is fun and addictive!

This past week the premium books came out and I will spend this weekend deciding what I am going to enter. This year I think I may brave it and enter the Blue Ribbon Cook-off where you cook meals in front of an audience and judges. I had a former boss who was also a junkie and she took me under her wing as a prodigy. She even let me take a day off of work to do nothing but bake for the fair. She gave me tips and pointers on how to display food, how to get in to drop this off quickly, how to take your food home (the food sits in un-refrigerated cases for almost two weeks so when you pick it up they give you your half eaten pie in your pie plate and it’s all yours to take home…mold and all!).

But I love the fair, I love going to drop the entries off a couple days before it begins, driving onto the fairgrounds is like driving into a little city that it waking up after a long winter slumber, people are everywhere planting flowers, raising tents, walking horses.

There is rumor that the Counting Crows are coming this year, what would be a much needed addition to a usually country line-up of evening concerts. A couple of years ago Dylan came and I am not sure what the hell we were thinking but we didn’t go. Tickets are usually cheaper than regular concerts and then there is the addition of corn dogs, funnel cakes, baby pigs, sheep, the butter cow (a life-sized replica of a cow, made completely of butter…I couldn’t make it up, I promise. Last year the cow was joined by butter kittens and mice) and the best thing, the Prairie Farms ice cream.

So, our secret is out, we are hayseed hicks who enjoy the state fair!

Corbin and Susan are due in this evening and we are looking forward to spending some time with them. Tomorrow I am off to a bridal shower and then I think we are venturing to Bloomington to try a new restaurant, “Reality Bites’…clever.

reading: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
listening: Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris