Saturday, September 6, 2008

Do the Puyallup (If you can get there)


Friday kicked off "the Fair". Yup, the Puyallup Fair is full swing and taken over the town. My friend Holly owns a gallery and every year they have a booth where they sell the work of the featured artist. She asked me if I could work it and I said sure. I like the fair and have been going since I can remember.
My first shift was from 10-2 on Friday. I figure drop the kids off at 9 and buzz down the hill, no problem. Well, that would have been fine and dandy except the town was shut down for the opening day parade. Now, Puyallup is one of those "quaint little towns", you know the kind with one way streets. Anyway, my directionally challenged self has a hard enough time getting around towns I'm not totally familiar with, but throw in about 5 different detours and my poor little brain just can't take it. I would be driving towards the fair and think "I'm almost there. I can see it" and then a detour would take me the opposite direction. I drove around for almost an hour. I finally saw a parking lot and scurried in as fast as I could. I was already 45 minutes late and I really hate being late, plus the lady I was working with was also stuck traffic so things were not off to a great start. Now of course the lot I was in was the lot furthest away from where I needed to be so I had to hightail it across the grounds.

I was surprised at how busy the fair already was. I guess there is free admission until noon on the first day so EVERYONE in Pierce Co. came. One of the funnest aspects of the fair is people watching the random encounters you have and we had some doozies, yesterday. One lady who stopped by our booth, was on her way to the NATO summit because of the nuclear bombs that are being stored in Europe. Of course this all hinged on whether or not she could get her husband served with divorce papers first. She was harmless, but apparently has a lot going on.

This year's artist is Sueellen Ross. She is a big time animal artist (You might even have one of her dog or cat calenders from LANG) Her work is really beautiful. If you are a dog (especially Lab people) or cat person, you must really check out her work. The pics here DO NOT do them justice. I thought some of her work were photographs until I learned they were watercolors and color pencil. It was funny, almost everyone who stopped by the booth would stop in their tracks and say "This looks just like (insert pet name here)"



Since we were selling cat pictures, we had lots of "cat people" stop by. Now I like my cats, but I wouldn't consider myself a "cat person". The folks who stopped not only owned nine or so, but they carried photos of them. And not only do they carry around photos of the felines, but they go that extra step and write captions of what the cats would say if they could talk. There was something oddly sweet watching these ladies go on and one about their dear little kitties. Although I felt like kind of a bad mom, considering this is the current picture I have of Sam and it is on my phone. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't tease too much. This was the pic I used have on my phone.



The weather is supposed to burn off today, but now it cool and cloudy. I need to go through the house and open all the windows and get some fresh air in here. I love how cool air smells. I love fall. I can't wait for the leaves to change. It is my favorite time of year.
Happy Saturday everyone!!

4 comments:

Kelly said...

I was on Jenny's blog (bits and pieces) and saw your post title on her side bar...I lived in Tacoma for 2 years in the mid 90's and have experience the Puyallup fair first hand. Everytime I've been back, I am amazed with how big Puyallup has become!!! Enjoy the fair!!

~*Marie*~ said...

LOVE the fair season.... they have become a little too commercialized for me lately, but I love a good country fair. Finished vacuuming up the pool this weekend and we are just getting ready to close it for the season. Hate to see it, but hate to have to constantly clean the leaves so I guess it is a trade off. Have a great weekend.

Jamie said...

It sounds like you've been very busy lately! I love the fair!

Debra said...

I love the fair. Sounds like you had a good time once you got there. Our county fair starts next week, I think. Have a good day.