it snuck up on me, the S.N.Surliness. and now i’m stuck with it.
i keep driving past a billboard that says MOVE LIFE FORWARD. it’s an ad for lincoln land community college, and i keep noticing it, but suddenly, the last time i drove by, the words kind of jumped right out at me.
time to move life forward. get on with things. moving on.
i gave chair massages at the fair again today, 9-5. ironically, instead of boiling hot, it was cool all day. and drizzly. i was freezing for good portions of the day, both in the illinois bldg and the couple of times i sat outside watching the people tromping around with their umbrellas, wearing all kinds of rain ponchos. why would anybody want to go to the fair on a day like today?
so when people were damp today, it was because of rain, not sweat. except i realized after a while that some of these people were wearing the rain ponchos, and they took them off for a massage…so they were sweaty. is there no way to avoid the sweaty people?
as i drove to the fairgrounds this morning, i passed a guy out in his garage, turing over a big piece of meat. it seemed mighty early to be grilling, in my opinion. perhaps he was going to cook it and cut it up and sell meat sandwiches to people who parked in his yard for five bucks. that’s what i call entrepreneurism.
i was so cold today that i stayed in the illinois building and bought soup for lunch. i sat in the auditorium, watching a 4-H talent revue. i fell in love with a kid in a red t-shirt, strumming a guitar and singing “i just wanna dance with you.” he was heartbreakingly good.
the rest of them were a little iffy. there was a big gal in a sparkly blue dress who played a sort of mechanical “maple leaf rag,” which is a song i actually know. at one point she sort of hesitated, and i was sure that the same thing was going through her mind that had gone through mine while playing it – all of a sudden, you think, “where am i? did i already play this part? is this the third repeat of this section?”
but she recovered and was ok. i believe the worst one was a tap dancing girl. she was skinny, with long hair, and a spangly black cap on her head, and she was the most apathetic tapper i’ve seen in quite a while. the song was “whip it (whip it good),” but she might as well have been tapping to a funeral march. her arms were stiff most of the time, and she never cracked a smile. she wore a polyester shiny top, but it had ridden up in the front in a haphazard way, so that half of her midriff was exposed. why hadn’t she at least pulled it down before going onstage?
two girls did a comedy routine. one wore a cowboy hat, jeans and big boots, and the other wore cutoff shorts and was barefoot. they assured the audience that their jokes were going to be funny, and that they were going to do a “blue collar comedy tour” kind of routine. They actually said stuff like “ok, this is a good joke.” they were all jokes about being in 4-H. “if your cow cost more than your truck, then you’re probably a 4-H’er.” i mean, it wasn’t dreadful, and maybe i’d have appreciated it more if i lived on a farm. i give them an A for effort.
another guy played the guitar and sang, but he was mostly just loud. a girl and her brother did a duet, called “never under-estimate my Jesus.” it went on for about three hours, and every time they sang “never under-estimate” with a little pause between the syllables.
a chunky kid in red suspenders sang a song from “titanic.” the song was about being a coal-shoveler on the boat, and it wasn’t easy music, but it wasn’t very…entertaining. but he did a fine job, had a good booming voice, did many many flourishes and hand gestures. but maybe something a little more…lively…would have been better.
it was a novel way to spend my lunch hour, and it was nice to see them all up there trying to be entertaining, instead of hanging out doing methamphetimines or something.
i have yet to see any meth users at the fair, except this one woman i gave a massage to today did seem drunk. i can’t even remember what she was going on and on about…oh yeah, she kept popping her head up from the massage chair to say something.
i did get a couple of marriage proposals today, and a few invitations to go home with people, but alas, the guys were all much too old, some without an adequate amount of teeth.
ok then,
just grace