I had some great fun going over the Wisconsin State Fair website - that actually advertised "Illinois Day"... so that "all our friends from Illinois can get a discount on fair admission to enjoy our fair". All you have to do is present your Illinois driver's license to receive discounted admission. Um... exqueeze me? Like we don't have our own ridiculously obese bull and boar? Like we don't have our own blue ribbon jams, jellies, pies, and pastries? Like we don't have our own pork chops on a stick? Like we don't have our own deep fried snickers bars, twinkies, oreos, and pickles? Like we don't have our own life-sized Neil Armstrong carved completely out of butter? Like we don't have our own cow chip throwing contest? No, we need to drive hours away to go to yours. Like yours is better? What really annoyed me about the prospect of Illinois Day was that it was an obvious ploy to keep the Illinois riff-raff on one, specific day of the fair. They could have just as easily said, "In effort to keep the Illinoisans from tainting the rest of the fair, we're going to offer them a discount for a specific day. That way, they'll hopefully come that day, and we can actually enjoy the rest of the fair - Illinois free." I know for a fact that Iowa doesn't have an Illinois Day at their fair. We're welcome any day of the fair. Wisconsin State Fair, you can keep your Illinois Day.
When I say that I have fun having a vendetta against Wisconsin, the above paragraph is a perfect example of how that looks. It's not real anger or hatred. It's more like a good-natured ribbing. What I mean is, we live within about an hour of the Wisconsin border. We share much of the same agriculture, weather, terrain, and life experiences, but we still find reason to dislike one another. We're like feuding neighbors, and I find that terribly fun... in a Grumpy Old Men kind of way.
Two years ago this fall, Mark and I went to a beautiful bed and breakfast in Wisconsin for a few days. I was pregnant with Violet at the time. We decided we'd like to learn how to fly fish. So we went to Cabela's and bought thigh-high waders, flies, and poles. This was an interesting sight, I imagine, watching a pregnant woman sitting on a van tailgate putting on waders. Me and my bulbous belly - wading into the creeks trying to learn how to fly cast. We never caught a thing. We did, however, find a lot of new and creative places to go to the bathroom... pregnant - remember? We had studied up on this quite a bit, but we didn't catch a thing. I'm not sure it was the right time of year, considering we didn't even see a single fish.
My husband and I had only known one another for about 2 1/2 years, at this point, and had spent relatively little time alone together. We were still trying to figure out how to be vulnerable with one another. As a result, there are a few humorous stories I like to tell about that trip. You see, my husband likes TV, but we don't have regular TV channels. We just have DVD's, Netflix, etc. He looks forward, on our trips away, to watching a little television from the outside world. I neglected to mention that the only TV set in the entire bed and breakfast was in the common room that we shared with the rest of the guests. I believe his response when we arrived at the B&B and he arrived at this horrible conclusion was something to the effect of, "You mean I have to share one TV with a bunch of old people? Grrreat! Now what are we going to do here?" Perhaps the fact that he couldn't just relax in his skivvies and watch Letterman before bed was quite distressing... so distressing, in fact, that the slightest thought of the romantic few days I had hoped for did not even cross his mind. Our room did, however, have a hot tub... which I was very grateful to use - yes, even whilst pregnant. I was just starting to get bigger, and I had a case of the pregnant clutsies. I kept tripping and falling. When we were scouting a stream, I had been running toward him and fallen in a hole - landing flat on my face (and belly). After I got up, we had a good laugh over it, but it made me even more thankful for a hot tub at the end of the day.
My husband is a Renaissance man. He has many tastes and an amazing array of abilities. One of those abilities is tying knots. He can tie an impressive array of knots... from a slipknot to a hitching post knot to a hangman's noose. (Incidentally, if you ever need to form a lynch mob and you need someone with his unique ability, feel free to call.) He not only knows how to tie these many times complex knots, he also knows the history of these knots. He has 2 or 3 books on knots. He often takes his rope and books with us places. He took it on that trip to the B&B in Wisconsin. One evening, as I was filling the hot tub with warm water, and he was sitting on the bed - reading and tying, something funny happened. I went to step into the hot tub, but I slipped on a rug and fell in - quite loudly. I got a huge bruise on my leg and another on my arm. At the time, I wanted to scream in agony, but, because I was embarrassed, I managed a mimed, "owowowowowow!" I peeked out of the tub expecting him to be staring at me or laughing at me, but he still had his back to me - tying knots. He is very intense and focused and hadn't even noticed me falling loudly into the tub. I found myself with mixed emotions ranging from annoyance that he wasn't paying me any attention, relief that he wasn't paying me any attention, embarrassment at my clumsy blunder, and curiousity about what would have happened had I been rendered unconscious by my fall. I wondered how long it would have taken for him to stop tying knots and notice I wasn't around. Would I have drowned in the tub? What would he have told the paramedics when they arrived to find his pregnant wife bruised, waterlogged, and deceased in the hot tub? We still laugh about it, from time to time, making up scenarios of how that might have gone. I have a friend who asks me to tell that story sometimes. She nearly rolls on the floor laughing by the end of it - incredulous that he was paying me no attention at all as I nearly drowned in a dimly lit hot tub.
This most recent trip was spent on a lake and was quite fun - aside from dealing with the same weather and same mosquitoes we deal with at home. At least we had a TV in our room. :) It also had a hammock, which I find to be a welcome addition to any vacation. Levi was having a difficult time understanding what we were doing or where we were going. He thought we were going on "cation" to "Miss Consin's" house. In fact, when the caretaker of the cottage arrived, he was pretty sure that he was Miss Consin and that he needed to go talk to Miss Consin about his nice house.
Anyway, I guess I have Wisconsin to thank for some of the good memories I already have in our marriage and family life. Maybe Wisconsin and I will have to kiss and make up someday. Or maybe I'll have to take Levi and Violet to the Wisconsin State Fair wearing their new, favorite t-shirts.
