You’re 13 or 14, the sun is setting and it’s casting its magical last bit of life onto something so cliché. They call it the “golden hour” in the photography world I think? Not to be confused with a “golden shower,” that’s totally different… You are rolling with you’re favorite crew. Or actually I think maybe they call it their squad. Who the fuck knows, I’m not a teenager and barely know any, so I’m hardly cool. Anyway, you’re walking with such confidence, until you see the one person who can make your face turn a light shade of red with just one single glance. Your expectations are low, maybe a smile, or a “hey what’s up?” You’re friends immediately tell you how hot he is, but how he is such an asshole. They only tell you that because they like him too. Bitches. Welcome to the carnival. Not in a metaphorical kind of way. Like actually, welcome to the local carnival that takes place in a small town center or your local catholic church parking lot.
The lights, the rides, the smellllll of cotton candy. I can see it all go down with my eyes closed. What a great childhood memory to make or to have already. My parents would never in 5,000 years let me walk around a carnival unsupervised in my teen years, so there was no making out on the Ferris wheel or kisses in the fun house. (Boring) But as a mom and adult, I litcherally photo bombed about 10 to 15 teens taking 900 selfies with their friends. Photo bombing was much cooler when I was younger. Unfortunately now when you photo bomb, the people taking the selfie know right away that you’re being an asshole. Back then, they had no clue for like 2 weeks or maybe even years later until they took the pictures to get developed.
I was on line at some “sugar shack” type place to get my littlest an ice cream cone while my big kids were waiting on a line that was about a mile long with their friends for some swing ride that was super high and only lasted about 20 seconds. Anyway, the girl working the sugar shack had zero sense of urgency and instead of helping the people waiting on her line that was probably 25 maybe 30 people deep and she was getting a lemonade for some dude and passing it out the back door. Well it wasn’t just a lemonade, it was also an Ice cream cone, and then a churro! The only thing she didn’t give him for free was a pretzel and that’s because they were sold out. I’m sure she would’ve given him a side of vagina if the line wasn’t so long. He’ll be back 🤮
So my favorite part of the carnival is actually the games! I love games and I mostly love winning. I don’t care that I’m basically crushing teens and a couple rando dads pretending they aren’t drinking beer in yeti mugs. I mean, cmon can’t you wait until you get home to have a beer?? The frog hammer one or ring toss game are a bit of a tie in my favorite category. There is also not much better than beating a whole line up of kids at the water gun race game. I always give the prize away to my kids and they think I’m the coolest mom on earth for like 30 mins until they forget. It’s a great way to kick off summer and it’s fun for everyone. Unless you hate rides and carnivals and people. Which I don’t. ❤️ Go to the carnival and wear exactly what you wore when you were a teenager. It’s back in style and you’ll definitely blend in. Eh, maybe not. Everyone litcherally looks like a cast member from stranger things. Actually you almost feel like you could possibly be in the upside down. Or maybe we are…. Wa ha ha ha. (Evil laugh)
This is 40ish 