Of food and flu shots

Last night, seven of us descended on the State Fair for our annual extended family visit. We wandered the midway, checked out the amazingly large vegetables--a 376-pound pumpkin and a 210+-pound watermelon were my favorites--enjoyed looking at the prize-winning animals, and so on. Our main mission, however, was to locate and consume a broad variety of foods whose only common point was that they were bad for us.

Mission accomplished. Some of the many things that went down our gullets included the following:

* pretzel with salt and butter

* fried plantains

* ginger beer

* Ting

* fried cheesecake drenched in chocolate and then covered with sugar

* fried cookie dough

* fried macaroni and cheese

* fried pickles (are you sensing a pattern?)

* ham biscuit

* hot dog with cheese

* cheeseburger

* kettle corn

* six enormous bowls of delicious NCSU ice cream of various flavors

* turkey leg

Please note that I did not eat all of these (just many of them).

I'm sure I missed something, but you get the idea: we consumed enough calories to warm the entire population of Livingston, Montana on a cold night when the pass is snowed over.

In one of the odder moments of the visit, we were walking toward the gardens (where I enjoy the benches and moments of contemplation while others stare at flowers and plants and rocks and things), when we spotted a booth giving flu shots. I hadn't gotten mine yet, and I wanted one, so in I went. The shot turned out to be free for those of us with my company's health-insurance provider, so less than ten minutes later, I emerged, as did Jennie, with a flu shot. What an excellent and well-done service.

I love the Fair at night, when the darkness obscures the grime and the lights transform the rides into magical conveyances. I also love the people watching, which frequently includes folks who clearly hope one day to become people of Walmart. Let's face it, folks: some of us can look more than a little scary when in our Fair regalia and so wired from sugar that we could power the rollercoasters ourselves.

I can't wait until next year.