Life is fair - it's people who aren't.

Last night I headed over to the Florida State Fair for opening day. I guess stability is a good thing at times, but I don't think the county/state fair has really changed much in the past 20 years of memory. I think the same rides are there and I'm quite sure the same fun houses are there. I left work around 3PM, did a quick bit of shopping for the weekend, and then headed to the fair. I was supposed to go with a friend, however they got stuck in Atlanta on a job, so I ended up wandering around for most of the afternoon checking out the same exhibits that seem to be there year after year; Cracker country (the 'sample of Florida living in the early 1900s'), steam exhibit (where I had a educational conversation with one of the volunteers there for a while about Faraday, Tesla, and Edison), and the art exhibits.

After a while one of my roommates showed up just before the 'Reel Big Fish' concert. I was excited about seeing the RBF guys play and had been listening to them for a while. Though they played a little over an hour it was non-stop fast tunes and debauchery (well fast tunes stuff really). They played a bunch of different covers, most appreciatively a-ha's 'Take On Me' and even a portion Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' for a few minutes. Live bands like this are what makes the music scene fun when the band seems to have a good time and just feeds off the crowd.

After the show we decided to hit the Midway section for a while and take in some rides and high calorie ladened food. Of any fair I attend I have one single tradition, I have to do the yellow slide since this is the first fair memories that I have. Fortunately the roommate humored me enough to let me have my indulgences. After a couple of rides of that, I think I reverted back to being the age of 7 for a while as we hit some of the other rides, slides, and fun houses. When I say things seem to stay the same, I meant it. Not only were almost all of the rides the same as they have been for 20 years with few things added, but there were more of the same! I think we went through at least 4 of the same 'house of mirrors' that were designed and laid out in nearly the exact same way. There were probably 3 examples of the 'Gravitron' (the spinning flying saucer thing that would slide you up the wall through centrifugal force), 2 bumper cars (which were a lot faster and more fun that the cheesy Busch Gardens toned-down junk), 2 zippers, and 4 Ferris Wheels. Why is it though that one still has as much fun as we did in the old days?

I suppose one really cannot mess with old memories.