Anticipation

As I mentioned in the post below, I checked out one of Garrison Keillor's novels from the library yesterday. Famous for being a Minnesotan and inventing the fictitious Lake Woebegone in prose and on his radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor's book does not disappoint. On every page, I have a "yes!" moment as he describes some aspect of Minnesota life that is so spot on. He names places that I have now been to and I now have a firsthand understanding of the rift between Minneapolis and St. Paul. (For the record for all you East Coasters, St. Paul is the neighborhood of Minneapolis that happens to contain the state capitol.)

And the Minnesota attitude. The cold is good for you!

Here is a paragraph about the State Fair. It is the most highly anticipated event of the year, and best as I can tell you fall into one of two camps. LOVE it or HATE it. I'm totally expecting to love it. Here, in Garrison's words:

On the last Saturday in August we put on our shorts and Gopher t-shirts and went to the Minnesota State Fair for the ritual trek through the Swine, Cattle, Horse and Sheep Barns, the Chicken Pavilion, to the Tilt-a-Whirl, Big Jiggle, the Giant Slide, the John Deere exhibit, blue-ribbon preserves and cakes in the Home Activities Building, the fine art show, and we bought four corn dogs with mustard and a bag of miniature doughnuts, which we ate on the double Ferris wheel, and then went home, satisfied, foot-sore, smelling of grease.

-Garrison Keillor, Love Me

I have no desire for summer to pass by quickly. In fact, I mourn at every sunset. Every day of summer is one day closer to winter. But, at the end, I have the State Fair to look forward to... and then there's football.