Werid Al Rocks!

Weird Al was so cool! Even better, though, was watching Jerry watch Weird Al. Jerry sung along at the top of his lungs, waved his arms with the music and just radiated pure joy. We'd been rockin' out for about an hour when the Weasel Stomping Day video lit across the screens during a costume change and suddenly Jerry didn't feel so happy. He considers himself "anti-kill" and the video really offended him, so he was ready to leave. He didn't let it cast a shadow over the past hour though. As we walked toward the exit he said for the fiftieth time that night, "Weird Al is awesome!"

The whole day was terrific. We rode a roller coaster--the last roller coaster I will ever ride in my life. That's right. My days of roller coaster riding are over. I don't care if that makes me old and boring. I hate roller coasters. Especially when they're at a Fair and the whole point of the ride is to make you feel like you're going to fly out of the seat and go careening into the asphalt at any second. We also rode one of those swing rides that's usually very tame (which was why we chose it) and found out they'd made some upgrades. Instead of a nice peaceful spin through the air we were regularly tipped forward and backward so it felt like we might, you guessed it, go careening into the asphalt at any second. Still, the part before I thought my life and the life of my child (he was making the most awful noises every time it threatened to dump him!) was in danger was really fun.

We also saw the cutest little bat in one of the exhibits as well as the cars from Herbie and Back to the Future. We even stumbled upon the Peking Acrobats doing their thing. I handed the camera to Jerry and he took about 200 pictures of the show.





Aside from watching Jerry watch Weird Al the highlight for me was watching Jerry play Rock Band on stage. As soon as we entered the Fair Jerry saw a huge Rock Band set up. You could play in front of an audience or you could play backstage. Early in the day Jerry and I played a bunch of songs backstage (me on the drums, Jerry on guitar) and then as we were leaving after Weird Al Jerry said he wanted to play on stage. Since I get my fill of humiliation at Circus Class I really didn't think I could get up on stage and play Rock Band in front of a bunch of people but luckily there was a group of three kids that were about to go onstage so Jerry played Bass with them.

This is the kid who refused to be in the first grade play and spent the second grade play curled up under a desk in his classroom. And he was up onstage with three kids he didn't even know playing a song he'd never tried before on bass! I was so proud.