Hateful Sheep: 4th State Fair Trip

Corinne and Nate and the natural beauty of a cow.

Hateful Sheep. Seriously...do they not look like KKK members? Spooky.

Corinne and the stolen button.

Friday night was my fourth and final night at the great Minnesota State Fair. I am faired out…big time. I think I can honestly wait 33 more years to head back. Four trips in less than a week is a lot of time spent eating at the fair. Trust me.

This trip was a reunion of the Heathers. A few years back, I was in a terrible production of “Much Ado About Nothing” at Lakeshore Players in White Bear Lake. Yeah, I said it. I believe in naming the evil that lurks in this world. The only good thing to come out of this show was some really great friends. I guess that you do form a lifelong bond when you travel the valleys of hell with other people. Corinne now lives in LA and Nate just moved back to Minnesota from Chicago. This is the first time we have been together in two years (I think). I have missed them a great deal. Oh yeah…where did the name Heathers come from you ask? Well…let me tell you. Some of the cast members thought we were a little too much of a clique and hence we became known as the “heathers” from the ultimate teen high school clique movie “Heathers”. Snarky, huh?

It was great to see them again. The best thing about Corinne and Nate is the ability to just pick up where we left off. It didn’t feel like we were apart for that long, and those are the best kind of friendships.

We just walked around the grounds eating, laughing, eating, talking, and eating some more. Then Corinne dropped the bomb…she wanted to see the animals. Ugh. Walking around a hot barn is never far up on my list of things to do in my life. Ever. But, after surviving the fair day with Debbie Downer from work on Wednesday, I was not going to ruin this fair trip. So off to the barn we went. Little did I know that one of the biggest laughs of my life was waiting for me just inside the double wide door. They had these sheep in these crazy cloaks and they looked like KKK members. I am not even joking. I just about wet myself from laughing so hard. Hateful sheep at the fair. Who knew? I laugh every time I look at the picture. Priceless. I was almost expecting to see a burning cross made out of hay bales and the pigs and cows being run out of the barn by the hateful sheep. “Baahhh…we don’t want your kind in our barn. Baaahhh.”.

So wrong….I know.

After more food (mini-donuts, roasted corn, and cookies) we just sat on a bench and people watched for the majority of the night. There are some crazy people on the loose at the fair. It’s like a freak show with blinking lights and food.

On the way out of the fair Corinne wanted an Al Franken button to take back to her husband in LA, but the booth was closed. I figured there had to be a button laying around in the booth somewhere so we casually cased the booth for a button to snatch. Just as I was about to give I saw a glimpse of the backside of a button in the corner on the floor. I told Corinne and she broke into the booth to snatch it. It was a pretty covert operation in plain sight. So she snatched the button and we were a few steps away from the booth when she turned it around and saw that it wasn’t an Al Franken button after all. What a waste. See people…crime doesn’t pay. But, truth be told it was pretty freakin’ hilarious.

There it is. Four trips to the fair and I’m probably about 15 pounds heavier. Good thing the fair is over…I don’t think I could out run those sheep if they turned on me.