Do the North Carolina State Fair

It's no Puyallup Fair, but it'll do.

Conor & I made our way to the North Carolina State Fair a while ago, and I was excited to see what a fair out here would be like. More mullets? More Nascar? More ethnicity? Oh man, the possibilities were endless. Conor's MO was food, my MO was people watching. Since all of my friends that read my blog are on the Left Coast, I thought I would write this post as a sort of comparison. Part 1: Things you would see at a fair in WA. Part 2: Thing you would NOT see at a fair in WA.

PART 1: THINGS YOU WOULD SEE AT A FAIR IN WA:



No fair would be complete without a ShamWow stand. There were no other infomercial-like stands though, which was weird. However, this guy was enough for the whole fair. Look closely at the pin on his shirt.


Here's a close-up. So good!


I debated what section this should go in. Although NC has it's own brand of crazies, I think WA has it's fair share, and this guy could probably be found anywhere. Loved the whole ensemble though.

No fair would be complete without all the animals! Although, I've never seen jazzercise sheep before, they were my favorite.













Conor got to milk a cow!


We also walked past a pig auction. Do we have these in WA? I feel like I've just never seen it before, but I'm sure they have them there. Isn't that why they had fairs in the first place?


PART 2: THINGS YOU WOULD NOT SEE AT A FAIR IN WA:


This was the first thing we saw when we walked onto the fairgrounds. Chew tobacco is huge here. So is smoking, but all I ever see are Skoal ads. The guy actually yelled at Conor for taking this picture. You're at the fair - hello!


We walked into the Hobbies & Crafts exhibition. Couldn't pass up taking a picture of this one.


Not too many people walking around with grills in Washington. A few, but not enough to be advertised at the Fair.


Do we have church representation at our fair?


Were there turkeys in there? No. Were they real guns? Yes. Was it frightening? You bet.


Conor wanted to eat the strangest, funkiest food, and I think he succeeded: Alligator tail. He said it did taste a bit like chicken, but that it was really fatty and tough. I stuck to roasted corn.


Now, deep fried "insert sweet treat here" very well could have been at the Puyallup fair this year, but I can guarantee you that it was in full force, and probably originated somewhere in the south. Conor couldn't decide between all the deep fried treats (oreos, moon pies, twinkies, candy bars, strawberries, banana pudding, etc.) but he finally landed on deep fried cookie dough. Ugh, it looked really gross in person, sorry for the shaky pic. Conor said it wasn't as tasty as he was hoping it would be.


So, good story here. I was highly stressed out for a majority of the day due to all the people that were there. You couldn't walk anywhere without brushing against someone and wanting to scream. While we were waiting in the VERY long deep fried food line, I noticed these two girls that walked up and were standing close to the line. Gradually, while we were standing still in the slow line, they were mosying closer and closer to the line, and my blood pressure started to rise a bit. Finally, the person in front of me noticed, and I thought they would do something about it, so I wouldn't have to. I was wrong because they decided not to cut in front of them, they cut in front of us. On any other day, I would have just been angry on the inside, but the anxiety of the day turned me into The Hulk. I said loud enough for them to hear "Are you serious?!? Everyone behind you in line has been waiting over 20 minutes, and you're just going to cut in front of us?" I was expecting a lot of cheering, and the girls to be carted out of the fair forever. Instead, my cheeks just turned pink, and the large black man behind the counter took our order first, then there order. Oh well, justice was sort of done. I think I did embarrass them a little bit, and the nice lady behind me told me she was proud of me.

Overall, besides being completely overwhelmed by the people there, I must say that the Puyallup Fair is a bit better than the NC State Fair. Conor and I still had a great time!!

Boo!

I love haunted houses. I hate haunted houses, but I love haunted houses. I talk the talk while standing in line, but once I walk into the haunted house, I get jelly leg and the screaming may begin.

Conor & I found a haunted house to go to out here in Clayton, NC called Clayton Fear Farm. It's about 45 minutes away, but I was really excited! It was quite the production because the place wasn't very easy to find, we had to go down the street to an ATM for cash, and someone parked us into our spot and. We finally had everything in order, and I was a little worried about the sketchiness of this place, but that can sometimes add to the scariness! When we walked up to pay, there were 7 different attractions. One cost $10. 4 cost $30. All 7 cost $40. Conor and I opted for the cheap thrill and paid $10 each for one attraction. Oh man.

We chose the Slaughterhouse after a recommendation from a group of teenagers. It was a small little building, so walking in, I didn't think we were going to be all that impressed. Who am I kidding. Put me in a dark room, and I'll scream. Put me in a room where someone could easily sneak up behind me and I will cling to Conor's shirt like I'll never let go. Make me look over my shoulder hundreds of times and I will curse like a sailor. There were probably about 3 people actually inside the building to scare us, with little rooms set up along the way, but I screamed the whole way. I'd say we were in there for no more than 3 minutes, and that's being generous. Worth $10? Absolutely not. Would I do it again? Yes.

By the way, if you're in WA, you HAVE to go to the Sammamish haunted house at Beaver Lake. It's the best.

Science Made Fun!

I've been slacking on the blogging lately, but I've actually had things to do the last few days, and Conor has been really busy with work which means he has been a laptop hoarder. I forgive him.

Good news - I am loving my job! I was a little nervous going into my first day, but once I got in the classroom again, I was excited to hang out with kids again and see what a typical day would be like. Although each program is only 90 minutes, and we do anywhere from 1-3 programs a day, it's EXHAUSTING! This is when teacher's get a break - I will have turn on the charm and excitement for all 90 minutes for all 3 sessions. We have 4 programs per grade level (K-5), so when all is said and done, I could be trained on about 24 lessons, but I'm guessing I'll stay somewhere in the upper grades.

The first program I trained on was called "Matter Matters" with first graders. Oh man, they're so cute. This program is a lot of fun because while we teach them about solids, liquids, gases, density, and properties, they're mostly in it for the slime and the volcano.

The next lesson was called "Sounds Like Fun" where the second graders explore how sound is made, what it travels through, and the workings of the ear. They love playing with the tuning forks, making an ear (complete with ear wax) and making sound slime.

The next lesson I did was for 4th graders at a Catholic school, which was an experience itself... Adaptation Station is a fun one because we bring in a few animals to talk about animals adapting to their surroundings. I've seen this program twice now (technically 5 times...) and I've seen 2 tarantulas, a scorpion (which glows under UV light - way cool), 2 fire-bellied toads, a red-eyed tree frog, an eel, a Mountain Horned Dragon, and 2 chameleons. I wasn't sure how I'd do with the animals, but I love them - even the tarantula! Not the scorpion though, he freaks me out. The chameleon is SO cool - his eyes are awesome. No slime though, the kids don't know what they're missing!

The last program I've been trained on so far is a program for 3rd graders called Zoom To The Moon! After talking about astronauts, moon phases (I get it now, by the way!), and the sun, we get to blow off water rockets and make space mud. This will be the first lesson I do on my own, so I tried to pay close attention.

My favorite story so far comes from Friday when I did Zoom to the Moon. The instructor I was working with was asking the kids if they know what kinds of food astronauts cannot eat while in space. The answer is food with crumbs, as they can jam their system. The kids were mentioning things like potato chips, bread, and crackers, when one kid frantically raised his hand.

Kid: "Fried Chicken?!?"

Scientist: "Yeah, you're probably right, no fried chicken."

Kid turned to his friend and said "I can NOT be an astronaut."

This kid loves fried chicken SO MUCH that his dreams of becoming an astronaut have been shattered. Poor guy.

Although there are a few things I don't love about the job, I'm really excited about getting out there on my own to put my own spin on things. I'll miss having more interaction with kids other than for just 90 minutes, and I'll miss teaching other subjects, but I don't have to do grades, report cards, or communication home. Basically, I just make slime all day long, and kids love me for it.

Thank you Craigslist. You really came through for me.

I got a job!!!

WOO HOO!!!

I interviewed last week with a company called High Touch High Tech and I go in tomorrow to sign some paperwork and get a schedule so I can begin training.

This company is hired by schools to come in and teach a 90 minute Science lesson to a classroom of kids. When I taught at McAuliffe, two days out of the school year we had the Pacific Science Center bring a field trip to the school, where kids had a similar experience. When I went in for the interview, I could tell right away that the two people who interviewed me absolutely loved their job, and thought they had the greatest gig in the world - that's always a good sign. They told me a bit about their program, showed me around the office/lab, and even showed me a few experiments that are typical to what we do in the classroom. I left the intervew on Friday REALLY hoping that they would offer me a position, and today I got an email saying I got the job! I can't wait to start!

Kids love these kinds of programs - it's out of their normal school day routine, so all eyes will really be on me. Plus, they know that they will be able to not only watch really cool experiments, but that they will be able to do some hands-on stuff as well. My goal is to learn as many experiments as possible, so I can do some when I come home at Christmas. This job will give me the opportunity to figure out which schools I like, so that I may have a better idea of what schools to teach at if I choose to do so next year. I'll be driving around a lot, so I'll get to know the Raleigh/Durham area better too. All-in-all, I think it's going to be a great experience, and I'm really excited about it! Plus, I'm hoping to gain some blogging material as I'm running a bit short in that department!

Goodbye Ellen. Goodbye Oprah. Goodbye CSI. Goodbye Law & Order. It's for the best. I'll miss you.

She's got le-egs!

I got a notice in my mailbox the other day letting us know we had a package. The delivery man is far too lazy to make it to my apartment door, so he simply throws a notice in our mailbox and puts the package in the apartment front office. He always says he tries us at our door - hello! I'm unemployed and am at home all day, you definitely did NOT try to bring me my package...

Anyway, I went to pick up what I thought was a book for Conor, but it was for me!!!



Ah Mom, so sneaky - I had no idea!

I quickly opened the box (it was really light, so no amount of shaking would clue me into what it was.)



Haha! My lovely, but very tech-slow mom has been using the computer a lot more lately, now that I'm blogging. She read the post about the bugs, and we had a good chat about how disgusting millipedes are!



She said she went out shopping last weekend with my brother Greg and his wife Kari, and they were at the store Millard Pollard in the U-Village. The millipede was out on the bed, and she cracked up and knew she had to buy it.



The lady at Millard Pollard said it is one of their most popular stuffed animals, and I can tell why - I already love it! I wanted to name her Milly, Conor's leaning toward Peder.



Thanks Mom - you're the best!

My Lobotomy

The first library book I finished was a book called "My Lobotomy" by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming. It's not written very well, but it is a really interesting story. This poor guy. Howard Dully was 12 years old when his wicked stepmother decided that he needed a serious fix for his behavior problems. Around the same time, there was a doctor named Walter Freeman who was looking to further his research in Transorbital Lobotomies. In case you're not as well-read on the subject as I am, that means they basically take an ice pick, stick it through your eye socket, over the eyeball, and for 10 minutes they SCRAMBLE YOUR BRAIN. Freeman thought this would stop whatever problems you had by ruining the connections that behavior had to your brain - for example, if you were depressed, the lobotomy would scramble your brain to sort of make you forget how to be depressed. Lots of patients died, lots of patients became vegetables, lots of patients had severe problems throughout life, and a few patients felt that they were 100% cured! Great success rate. This is the story of Howard Dully who was given the Transorbital Lobotomy at the age of 12, and since no one ever talked about why he had to have it, 40 years later he went on a journey to find out why he was given one. Its pretty interesting -only 270 pages, and I breezed through it in 2 days, about 6-8 hours I would say.

The original story of Howard Dully was featured in an NPR special. They originally were doing the story on Walter Freeman. He was big into lobotomies, and he really thought it was going to be the future of curing brain diseases. He documented every surgery he had ever done with extensive notes, and before, during, and after photos, so NPR had plenty of material to do a story on him. But, when they met Dully and heard his story, they switched focus, and had him run the special. It was one of NPR's most highly regarded specials - they got more emails on that story than any other story they had ever done.

Below is a picture of Dully during his lobotomy. In order to sedate him before the procedure, he had extensive electroshock therapy - he doesn't even remember anything that happened that day, only what was written in Freeman's notes. It was a ten-minute procedure that affected him for the rest of his life. If you're squeamish, you may have a rough time with this picture, just a heads-up. This is his new tool used to do the lobotomy, he no longer used an actual ice pick in his procedures.



It was a pretty remarkable story, and in the end, you just want to figure out how you could help Dully and make his childhood better. But, it was a sign of the times, and he came out okay in the end (or he came out as good as you can after having your brain scrambled.) I'd recommend it if you're interested in what you've read above! 1 down, 3 more books to go!

Chillaxin'

Conor and I had a great weekend - we had no plans, so we were able to relax and not worry about anything. It's hard work doing nothing Monday - Friday, but when the weekend comes, I look forward to it! Friday after Conor got home from work, we decided to do a little date night: dinner and a movie. We went to PF Chang's first, but we weren't really prepared to wait for an hour and 25 minutes, so we went to Cheesecake Factory instead. The molasses bread they serve you before the meal comes out is heaven. I don't even care what I order there, as long as I get that bread. Yum. After dinner, we went and saw Zombieland. No joke - this movie could possibly be added to my top 10 of all time. I'm not going to tell you anything about the movie, because I didn't know much, and I think that was one reason I loved it. There is an awesome special guest too. Great movie!

On Saturday, we made our first stop to the post office to send Gabi her birthday present. I know she reads my blog sometimes, so Gabi - don't read this part yet, you'll spoil your birthday present! I called her mom about a week ago, and asked what to get Gabi and Jon for their birthdays (they share a b-day - 10/6). Jen had no ideas for Jon, but she did have Olivia do some detective work, and she told us the three Webkinz she wanted. If you knew Gabi, and you knew her voice, you would know that this story is much funnier when you can hear her say it. She wanted the dragon, a dinosaur, and a bat. She also likes all the lizard Webkinz too. Only Gabi - no kittens, puppies, or cuddly sheep for this girl... We got her the bat and a pair of vampire fangs and she's going to LOVE it!

After the post office, we headed to a restaurant called Nosh.



Conor heard about it from a baseball friend, and we headed there for some breakfast. The restaurant itself is pretty cool. You walk in and order your food from the register in front, and then you take a card back to your seat and wait for your food to come.



The cards are of local animals that need a home from the local shelter - there is a bio about each animal on the back with a cute picture on the front. Pretty cool.




They also had lots of board games and card games for you to choose from to play while you ate - we read Trivial Pursuit cards to each other.

Once our food came, I instantly was jealous of Conor. Oh man, his food looked so good.


Conor had the Shoaf's Toast. French toast stuffed with peanut butter, honey and bananas. Yummers. It was really good - I can't wait to go back so I can have what Conor ordered.


I had the Rocket's breakfast - everything was good, just not great. The potatoes had curry on them, and I like curry, but it's not much of a breakfast spice for me...

After Nosh, we headed to the local library to get cards and check out some books. Conor and I each checked out a few things, and I'm excited to turn off the TV and read a bit more until I find a job. Conor checked out "Is This a Great Game, or What?" by ESPN's Baseball Commentator Tim Kurkjian, and "Snuff" by Chuck Palahniuk. He also got three CD's - Fall Out Boy: Folie a Deux, Belle and Sebastian: If You're Feeling Sinister, and Taylor Swift: Fearless. Yup, Taylor Swift. I dont even know who I married anymore.

I checked out 4 books, and I've already finished one. "My Lobotomy" by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming, "Thanks for the Memories" by Cecelia Ahern, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg, and "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith. My Lobotomy I had seen at Barnes & Noble and thought it looked really interesting, Thanks for the Memories I saw on display at the library, and I love her other books, and the last two were recommended by my mother-in-law, so I thought I'd check them out too.

After we checked out our books, we quickly ran to CVS on the way home to get a camp chair and Skittles. The camp chair was so we could sit outside and read since it was such a nice day, and the Skittles were for Conor.

On Friday, Conor watched on the Jimmy Fallon show as a group that works at the Universal Record Database. Basically, you can make up your own record that you want to break - it's not as strict as the Guinness World Records, and you don't have to break a record that already exists. After watching the show on Fallon, Conor was inspired to see what records he could break. A girl had previously eaten a bag of Skittles in 3:34, and Conor knew he could beat it. So, we grabbed the Skittles, came home, and we recorded him eating an entire bag of Skittles in about 2:14 (it was actually a little less, but close enough...). Conor submitted the video, hopefully he'll hear something from them soon. I'll save you 3 minutes of your time - the video is just Conor chewing. He tried to find one for me to do - so far the front runner is saying all 50 states in alphabetical order (thank you Mrs. Corbin-Peterson for teaching me the Fifty Nifty United States song in 5th grade). The record is currently around 3 minutes. I said all 50 states in about 30 seconds, but Conor forgot to mention I also have to be hit in the head with a wooden spoon while doing it. Random. We'll see about that one...

After that we sat on the patio for quite a while and read our books. We then caught the 4th quarter of the extremely disappointing UW game, then headed to Twisted Noodles for some dinner. When we got home, we chilled a bit and watched SNL. Ryan Reynolds is my absolute celebrity crush. Conor thinks I'm kidding, but if the opportunity presented itself, I can't say I would have any restraint. Lady Gaga also killed it - I usually fast forward through the musical guest, but I really like her and she sounded great.

On Sunday, we slept in a bit, and made breakfast together. We apparently had too many appliances going for our bacon, waffles, and Conor's coffee, because we blew a fuse. It tasted great though, and we relaxed while Conor watched the Tigers take on the White Sox. There was something important about this game, but this is my blog not Conor's, and I hate watching baseball on TV, especially if it's not the Mariners. I finished my book, took a nap, and got ready - Conor and I ran to Subway for dinner because we had no food in the kitchen. I'm not 100% Liz-worthy just yet, I haven't learned how to make an amazing meal out of anything I can find in my pantry...

When we got back, Conor and I worked on organizing our bedroom. Poor Conor hates that kind of crap more than anything in the world, but it really does feel good to now have a place for all of our stuff, and he admitted that it felt good once it was done. After he picked up his buddy from the airport, we watched the Amazing Race, I played Super Mario Galaxy (side note - I beat this game, but it is one of the few games that is still really fun to play after you beat it - if you're unemployed, invest in this game - total time waster!!!), and crashed after the room was cleaned completely.

It was a perfect, relaxing weekend. In the words of my former 4th graders, we had a great time chillaxin' - thanks Conor!