The Circus

The other day Breanne sent me a message wanting to know if I wanted to go to the circus because she could get free tickets.  My first thought was, "you are aware that there are clowns at the circus, right?"  (My fear of clowns has been well documented)  However, I didn't want to lead off with this thought.  I needed to sound like an adult and not someone who was petrified of a souce of childrens joy.  So I played it off with such comments as, "we are pretty busy this weekend, lets not add one more thing" and "do you think Julia is old enough to even enjoy the circus?".  Much to my shagrin, I lost and we were heading to the circus. 

My hope was, that maybe if I could stay a good distance away from all of the clowns, then I wouldn't have to worry.  Although, they do have the ability to smell my fear so I was aftaid that they would come and seek me out.  I dropped the girls off at the door and found a place to park.  This left me to navigate my way to our seats all alone!  I simply kept my head down and swiftly made my way through the crowds.  I was pleased to find that we were in the upper mezzanine level in the middle of the row.  This assured that I would not be in close contact with any of satans minions.  (That's right.  Clowns are Satan's minions!  I'm sure it's in revelation somewhere).  Anyway, I tried my best to enjoy the circus and surprisingly there were definitely parts that I did enjoy.  The acrobat people and the jugglers were quite enjoyable!  I especially liked the elephants.  While I can't help but be sad that they are in a travelling circus instead of in the wild, how can you not smile at a baby elephant that skips and stands on its head!  I dare you to not to think its the cutest thing you ever did see.  There were other aspects of the show that I was less impressed with.  I found it completely unncecessary for the dog show lady to be dressed up as Lady GaGa.  It was just plain silly.  Also, the ring master felt the need to sing Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" while the trapese lady did her little act instead of just playing the actual music.  It was just plain weird and it totally made the dude look like a creeper.  It didn't help that he looked oddly like William Shatner, who is probaby also a creeper.

The hardest part of the show to deal with was the shear length of it.  Maybe it was becase we had a 1 1/2 year old with us who was up past her bed time, but we were definitely ready to go by the end.  The problem was that they started 25 mintutes late and extended the intermission.  This was to allow them to make as much money possible from all the parents of kids who wanted to ride the elephants and ponies, and get their picture taken with the giant snake.  You could also take this time to purchase programs, light up wands, cotton candy, popcorn, soda, balloons, and various other things you don't need.  The up side to having a 1 year old is that she doesn't know that she wants these things yet.  So we got off fairly easy on this one!

Overall, the circus was a success.  The greatest success was that I was never less than 50 feet from a clown!!  However, upon declaring this last night on facebook, Breanne corrected me.  There was one point that a clown walked right in front of our section in the mezzanine, but I was too busy updating Twitter on my phone to realize it.  She saw that I was occupied at the moment and didn't point out the proximity of the minion.  How awesome of a wife is she! So, I suppose the night was a success because I was never knowingly, within 50 feet of a clown!  Thats a good day in my book!