State Fair Thoughts

Today/Monday/Labor Day was the last of three days I went to the Minnesota State Fair.  And while the lines were longer than I remember them from last year and 2019 and before then, all three days I was truly grateful to see so many people (although I think final attendance numbers will be a lot lower than what The Media and people say they saw) having fun and hanging out with their friends and loved ones.  And frankly, the hot women showing off their bellies was something I was looking forward to, too.

What I was not looking forward to, and what I didn't expect?  The cutting in lines.  I swear it wasn't as bad as it had been in years past.  I blame Trump and the pandemic.

I got really pissed when I was trying to queue up for the bus taking me back to the lot where I parked my car.  I was about to round this metal barrier when this young, hot bitch (who wasn't showing off her belly, pffft) cut in front of me and stopped right at the end of the barrier because that's where the line ended.  I got so upset that another young person again cut in front of me that, because I was standing right there behind her, I said, "Hey."  And she said, "Hey," and probably thought I was going to kidnap her, so she and her friends went up the line and cut in front of more people.  Maybe my anger at her came off as something creepy.  OK, it did come off as creepy.  I just had no way to call out that bitch for cutting in line.  And then she and her friends were going to beat me out of the church parking lot, so even though they got off the bus first (I had a slow, old woman asking the bus driver questions while she and the others in the back went out through the back exit -- forgot about the back exit, dammit), I sprinted to my minivan because I wanted to beat them onto the street because I'm a petty, passive-aggressive son-of-a-bitch.  I showed her, didn't I?  No, I probably made her think that I was weird.  And that I run funny.  Fuck it, who cares, I did have a fantasy football draft to get to.

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Oh yeah, one other thing.  Because of that goddamn shooting Saturday night, I believe security ramped up the use of metal detectors.  That made things really bad getting into the Fair today/Monday because I had to wait a good, oh, 5-10 minutes.  I literally carried my things in my hands to show them all the things that could set off the detector, I was told to walk through the detector, I set off the detector, and some "security" guard leaning against a metal rail pointed with her free hand to the side where another "security" guard was.  And then I waited another five minutes before I was told by that "security" guard to go through another detector, which I did not set off, and so she just waved me through.

Total shitshow.  I understand why.  Thank the gods above The Great Minnesota Get-Together somehow has not had a really bad gun incident like the one Saturday night (and, now that I see on Twitter, tonight).  But frankly, if the lines getting in are going to be long, and the lines getting to food are going to be long, and if people are just going to be rude and stupid ... well, that takes the sheen off of the Minnesota State Fair.

I started off this blog post saying how much I love the Fair, didn't I?