2023 l.a. county fair roundup

so one good thing that came out of the pandemic was that the l.a county fair moved from september to may, which is lovely because it was always hotter than a witch's butthole at the fair.  this is the second year of it being in may and the weather is pretty much perfect - with most days starting off overcast and cool and temperatures in the 60s and 70s.

the bean and i headed out during opening weekend using the two-week season passes i'd bought at christmastime.  i was super amused at the shirt they chose to wear - one of their trademark button-downs with little corn dogs all over it.

i'd already gotten the heads up about the fate of my two entries into the home arts competition, so i was okay with stopping to grab something to eat before heading over to check them out.  as always, there were tons of options for food and we chose some delicious carne asada tacos from king taco as our first item.

it also helped that they had a booth directly across from the entrance to the grandstand buildings where the competitions were displayed.  and so once we were done gobbling down every last bit, we headed over to find my crocheted entries.  it didn't take long to find them both.

we browsed through all of the competition displays - tablescapes, sewing, embroidery, various food items. and when we were done, it was time to find something else to snack on.  that came in the form of bacon-wrapped pickles for me and deep-fried oreos for the bean.

the dogs were barking after all that walking around (haha, it'd been like an hour...maybe) and we made our way over to the footsie wootsie machines for a little foot massage action.  i fished through my bag to find as many quarters as i could find and we were both startled to find that not only were the machines now accepting only credit cards/contactless payments, but that it now cost a whole dollar for a few minutes of bliss.  we sat down anyway, but man...that's some inflation right there.

neither of us ate this, but i had to take the picture anyway because whoa.  this is a fried chicken sandwich served between two krispy kreme donuts, drizzled with raspberry sauce and covered in crunch berries cereal.  like...WUT.

while they made endless fun of it last year, the bean's favorite food item for 2023 was this skewer crammed full of bacon-wrapped, deep-fried pork belly.  and i gotta say...it was delicious.

and we couldn't leave without stopping at cathy's cookies for a bucket of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

you know what's funny?  i was craving pizza, but at almost $10 for one slice at the nearest booth i decided to make a pitstop before going home.  because i mean - come on, you can't beat $1.99 costco pizza!

the next week, we went again with the bean's friends from school.

this time, i had some fresh potato chips topped with gooey cheese sauce:

we saw some animals, like this sweet cow:

and the bean enjoyed this slice of cheesy, garlicky pizza.

one of my mom friends from the bean's elementary school days is the voice of the fair - she does all of the voiceovers for their ads online and on tv and the radio.  she texted me one day out of the blue - and i'm paraphrasing here - "hey, do you want to go to the fair for free with a parking pass, eat some free food, take some pictures and possibly be in next year's commercials - plus get paid for your time?"

um, YES PLEASE.

and so that's how i ended up at the fair one more time, hamming it up and posing for videos and photos.  this is the only picture i took with my phone, at the tail end of the photo shoot.

three days after the fair ended, i found myself at the fairplex once again - this time, just to pick up my competition entries.  this was a first for me, because in the past i'd only ever submitted cookies and those always get tossed in the trash when they clean out the display cases.

it was kind of weird to drive around inside the fairgrounds, with all of the rides and food booths and things being torn down and moved to either storage facilities or to the next fair or carnival.

and now i have these back in the house...along with two blue ribbons that i'm pretty proud of.

woohoo!  can't wait till next year - maybe this time i'll actually get my act together and sew up some clothing to submit for judging.  let's see how many different categories i can maybe win a ribbon in.

have a little "trust"

the alarm went off the next morning all too soon.  well, i'm lying.  i actually woke up a solid hour before it was set to go off, which usually happens when the day promises to be big and exciting.  as i got up and got myself ready, i wondered how the bean was doing down the hall a few rooms away.

when i got there, i was amused to find that she'd chosen the hawaiian breakfast from the room service menu:

they had a call time of 7:30 in the coach's suite, and we'd been instructed to have the girls fully dressed in their uniforms with hair competition ready.  the coaches would do their makeup, which really took a load off of me.  i think i do a fairly decent job of replicating the look they want, but if the coaches are willing to do it for us i'm not gonna turn down the offer.  and so we hopped into the elevator at about 7:25, excited and anxious for what was to come.

the girls were going to have a party in the suite as they all got their faces done and hung out together, laughing and chatting and bonding as a team.  before i left, i got her to stop and pose for me:

and when i left, i headed straight over to the box office at the arena to buy our tickets for the day so that we'd already have them in hand when it was time to find seats and watch our girls perform.  on my way i had to stop for a quick photo op.

i'd timed it pretty well and didn't wait too long in line to buy our tickets.

i went back upstairs, where the hub was still blissfully snoozing away.  we had several hours to hang out before the girls hit the stage around 11:45, and after he got up and showered and everything we grabbed MIL from her room and hopped into the car to find some starbucks.  on our way back to the orleans i got this from my team mom buddy.

while the bean looked excited and ready in the picture, my friend reported that she'd suffered a slight injury during warm-ups.  as they practiced their stunts, the bean's flyer somehow managed to fall backwards onto her face, causing her braces to cut her lip and make her bleed.  i asked her if she cried, and she said that she had but pulled herself together pretty quickly and was okay.  i know my kid, though - she really tries her hardest to be a tough cookie and not draw attention to herself if she gets hurt, and so hearing that she cried got me a little worried.  my friend assured me that she was okay and ready to perform, and we sent her this along with some encouraging words just before it was their turn to hit the mat.

i was wearing my lucky shoes - chucks with silver sequins that i'd worn last year.

and then the announcer came out and introduced them while we scampered down onto the floor into the VIP area in front of the stage, and it was showtime.

team "trust" was the first of her two teams to go on, and i was particularly excited for this routine because for the dance portion at the end my girl is featured front and center.  she'd earned the spot during a dance-off they'd done during practice a few weeks ago, and i was so proud as i watched her do her thing up there.

we had a good hour or so before we were due back in the arena for the awards ceremony, and went out to scoop up the bean for some lunch.  she burst into tears when she saw us waiting for her, and was in a good bit of pain from her injury.  i felt terrible as i saw it, because it really did look like it hurt like hell.  but we all told her how proud we were of how they'd all nailed their routine and how she'd sucked it up and went out there and performed like nothing was wrong.

we went to joe's at the forum shops at caesar's palace and picked up some delicious grub.  this was my crab roll that i basically inhaled because i had to get her back into the arena to join the rest of her team as they waited for the awards to be handed out.

we sat together for a few minutes, and she begrudgingly allowed me one selfie.

when she scooted up a few rows to sit with her teammates i met up with the hub and MIL, who'd stopped at the merchandise table to pick up a couple of things at my request.  i typically try not to buy stuff like this, because god knows the bean has enough stuffed animals.  but today was an exception because 1. i knew she'd love it and 2. i was looking for any way possible to cheer her up and take her mind off of how much her lip hurt.

it worked (although i think spending some time with her cheer BFFs as they danced and giggled together helped too).

it was finally time for the awards to begin, and i don't remember her name anymore but there was an "american idol" contestant there who sang a couple of songs and got the crowd all pumped up.  the streamers and confetti guns were a nice touch.

the announcer explained that there were 19 divisions during that first session of the day, and he would announce the top 3 out of each one including the first place winners.  he rolled right through a bunch of national championship announcements before he finally got to our division, and i think we all held our breath as the 3rd place team was announced.  the second place runner-up was next, and then he said the words we were all waiting for...our girls had taken the top spot.  they ran excitedly up to the stage, where they received their medals and posed for a photo.

they disappeared backstage, where i knew they were happily accepting their championship jackets, and then we all met up with them at the top of the arena.

one down, one to go!