The Escapades of a Santa Cruz County Fair Newbie Continue...

This is an update to the blog " which was posted on Aug. 6.

Here we are. The Santa Cruz County Fair begins in a few short weeks on Sept. 11. I’ll bet you think I am all set and prepared, organized to the last mounted photo, with my winning apple pie recipe tested a dozen times and my canned fruit sitting in a basket by the door. I'll bet you picture me sitting here in my apron, with the smell of adhesive spray long gone, enjoying a cup of coffee as I bask in the glow of my achievements. Especially, since this Saturday is when I am going to the fairgrounds to turn in my photos, my canned goods and my daughter's collection as the deadline for drop-offs quickly approaches this weekend. Well, the answer to all of that is a big fat NO. If this was a test and you answered “none of the above” then you are the winner of the chicken dinner, or so they say (or at least someone says).

I will say it right now: I am seriously instruction manual impaired, and reading Fair instructions is no exception. I have to get a what and do a what to a what? What?! That, in a nutshell, is how I read instructions. It is like trying to read a foreign language that looks like my own, but is something completely different. I am an avid reader of everything readable, but instruction-manual-ese is not a language for which I am anywhere near being fluent.

The point is, if I was fluent in that language, I would have realized the drop off dates were this weekend instead of next, but thankfully a good friend of mine saved the day and told me last night. As grateful I am that she told me, that is also the moment that nothing short of sheer terror began. So, this is the yearly “fair panic” I have watched my friends go through in the past. Maybe I am lucky, my panic stage was put off by my ignorance or complete avoidance of reading the instructions thoroughly. But now the panic has kicked in double-time. Where are the photos I got printed a few weeks ago? The fact that they were already printed is all I have going for me at this point. Then I have to decide which three photos to submit.  

Those are the easy questions though. The other questions involve the dreaded reading of the instructions. What? I need to buy a brilliant white what kind of board, that has to be a size what, and the top piece is cut like how, and then I can’t use a tape this way, but can use it that way but could use spray adhesive and then I can write what on the back but not on the front, and this goes this way, that goes that way… Sometimes I feel like I am in an episode of "I Love Lucy".

Once again, my friend saved the day and offered to help me mount the photos, so thankfully I am not going to pull my hair out. I know, mounting photos is not rocket science and I have done it before, but this is the Santa Cruz County Fair afterall. It needs to be perfect! How embarrassing would that be if I had to report back here that I was disqualified from the Fair for not reading the instructions properly? Don’t rule that out as a possibility though, okay?

The fruit is ready to go, luckily that was already done a while ago, but I haven’t even started to practice my recipe for the Apple Pie contest, which thankfully isn’t due until Sept. 11.  I will report back before the Fair with my pie adventures, which I am sure will be eventful, as everything with the fair has been so far.

But do I love all this excitement?  Yes, most definitely. I have a feeling I might become hooked. In thinking about it, actually, I know I am already hooked.

Speaking of the Apple Pie Baking Contest, you can still enter FREE through Sept. 4! (Hint, hint readers!) I am hoping I won’t be the only Apple Pie Contest newbie there!