Interesting To Somebody

This week is the Benton-Franklin County Fair. It's a pretty big deal around here and it's always the ultimate finish to summer vacation. Not for me though. I've never been interested in it (more about that in another blog to be sure), but I can appreciate other's fascination with it.

Anyway...

Every so often some big name musical acts are booked for the fair. It's not usually a band I'm particularly interested in seeing, but other people are. Even though I'm not interested, my job has afforded me a way to be of service to the various musical acts. I get to clean up after them and their crews.

Need proof? Well why else would I have posted this?

First up we have America and their culinary needs.




















These next two are for Night Ranger and whoever Church is supposed to be. I honestly have no idea.



















Hot means... well I think you get the idea.




















I decided to save the best for last. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Bucky Covington's catering list!




















When I worked Tuesday night we had all of the food for the Beach Boys in the back walk-in. Clint Black was also staying in the hotel with his three tour buses taking up space in the parking lot.

Not many people can claim to clean up after these musical acts (not many people would care or want to, I'm sure), but I feel, in a silly proximal sort of way, somewhat "cool."

I cannot stress how overworked that pair of quotation marks is. I simply cannot.

Kelly went on vacation. Yes, really.

I got a sunburn, there was a crazy storm and I was stuck in airports for hours on end.

All with my best friend, so this was hands down the best vacation ever.

My vacation began on Thursday, but Friday is when my flight was. It arrived in Kansas City around 11:30PM, and I was picked up by KaTrina in Bambi (her Jeep) around 11:45PM. Stepping out into the fresh Missouri night air I was immediately reminded of the thick humidity in the dish pit at work. Except it was calmingly lukewarm instead of obnoxiously sweltering. +1 for Missouri.

We all went to a nice Howard Johnson's Hotel in Kansas City to stay the night, seeing as how we'd be spending as long as we could at Oceans of Fun the next day. It was a lot of fun going to a real water park with all kinds of slides, a lazy river and even a WAVE POOL! That was the best part of the park for me. The sunscreen probably lasted as long as it could, but I still got a sunburn. Poor KaTrina though, she didn't put any on so she got it the worst.

After spending over four hours at the park we all left Kansas City (I keep wanting to type St. Louis for some reason) and went to St. Joe (about 45 minutes from Maryville, our ultimate destination) and had lunch at Chipotlé (huge burritos). It was awesome to see so much in less than one day of being there.

Then we got to Maryville. It's the very definition of a small university town on the verge of experiencing a boom. Kind of like the Tri-Cities was some time ago. Quaint isn't exactly the word here, but it's definitely set at a different speed from a lot of other parts of the country. The campus of Northwestern Missouri State University is beautiful, and it was great touring around it and taking pictures on my last day there.

The movie theater there is made up of giant airplane hangars and they even have a dinner and a movie option that is really cool. While there I went to see Funny People (which was a lot longer than I thought it would be) and G.I. Joe (which was just plain awesome). It also turned out to be my birthday when we went to a Mexican restaurant named La Bonita. I got to wear a giant red sombrero and get my picture taken. By now there should be a picture of a very surprised person balancing an ill-fitting hat on their wall.

KaTrina, I'm tasking you with getting it back should they ever take it down.

That's only a few of the things I got to do while I was there. KaTrina and I went to St. Joe to spend some time together, and that was a lot of fun. I need to remember to buy a rocking chair sometime in the next 50 years. Also, mild storms in the midwest are really cool. I've never seen clouds move so fast, lightning strike so close or rain come down that hard.

The day of our flight (I kidnapped KaTrina (despite the fact that she drove to Kansas City) and brought her back home with me), we left early to take pictures of me around the NWMSU campus in my new NWMSU hat and hang out in Kansas City until our flight. Turns out there isn't much to do there, so we waited in the airport. We did Mad-Libs, Facebook Uno and generally hung out. We did the same thing in Denver too. Spokane not so much. Driving home was the focus of that leg of the trip in spite of my poor direction giving to cab drivers.

Anyway, I had an incredible time. KaTrina is here until the 20th so I'll still get to see her and hang out before she goes back, but it was really nice being her guest these last few days.

It wasn't until I was taking my shower this morning that I realized the entire time I was there I didn't worry once about my troubles back home. That's what a vacation is supposed to be about right? If so, this one succeeded and was awesome.

What's your favorite decade for movies?

I'm just sitting here eating some strawberry ice cream (with real strawberry chunks just how I like it), and watching Ghost Busters on AMC. It's been on that channel a lot lately and this is the first time I've caught it from the beginning. I remember wearing out our old, recorded from HBO VHS copy when I was younger. I understood a respectable part of the humor, what with being under 10, but I would mostly watch it for all of the ghost and the wicked awesome proton packs and uniforms.

I was Egon for Halloween a few times even. Had a home made costume thanks to my mom and eventually a toy proton pack. Needless to say I was the envy of a lot of kids come those 31st's of October.

It's something about that movie though that just screams the 1980's. A lot of movies from that decade do that though; Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Aliens, Big Trouble in Little China, and Back to the Future just to name a few. The fact they happen to be some of my favorite movies notwithstanding of course. Is the 80's my favorite decade for movies though? I honestly don't know. I have just as many movies from the 90's and 00's (however that's pronounced) that I love just as much.

The 90's gave me Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Matrix, and Men In Black, again, just to name a few. I have so many memories of going to the movies with my friends or by myself to see all of the awesome movies that were so totally freaking awesome that I absolutely had to go see them as soon as possible. So, I could make the argument that the 90's is my favorite decade for movies, but I haven't even gotten to this decade.

Meanwhile the 00's had the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean, most of the Harry Potter movies, The Dark Knight (not just because of The Joker, mind), the Bourne trilogy and a whole hell of a lot more. When I finally got my driver's license and a truck in '03 I could finally go to late night movies and the super awesome Midnight Premiere (the allure of which has since come and gone as evidenced by a previous entry) whenever I felt like it.

Whenever I watch one of my favorite movies I always get a certain feeling or 'vibe' from it. Memories picked up from different times I've watched them, noticing things I haven't before and understanding jokes I didn't understand previously (if it's been a really long time since I saw it last). With this decade quickly coming to an end, I'm very excited to see what's coming when we can start saying Twenty-_____ instead of Two-Thousand-_____

Seeing as how the title is a question, it would only make sense for answers to follow. Do any of you out there have a favorite 'decade'?

As a side note, I left out the 70's simply because I hadn't been born yet. You needn't do the same.