even the best years are a waste of time

The boy and I went off today to Court Days, which is a big market in Mt Sterling (30 miles from Morehead, 60 from us, roughly). I have no idea how many people turn up to this thing, but they block off a bunch of streets for three days every October, and an impromptu flea market type thing pops up. It used to be about an annual day to have.. well, court, but that's faded long since, obviously. It's a little hard to explain just how big the thing gets.. someone on the internets says that over a hundred thousand people show up every year. I wouldn't doubt it as I personally was run into by 28,739 people just today, and successfully evaded twice that--and it only the first day. :p It seriously is crowded like you wouldn't believe for the space of a few city blocks. I don't think I've bought much worth mentioning there, ever, but it kind of draws you there like a moth to a flame anyway. I have a serious theory that Ebay has ruined flea markets, for now everyone thinks that all their old junk is worth something, so the only things you can buy at a flea market are t-shirts (invariably from elderly Asian women) and junky tools and overpriced food from questionable vendors, and if you do happen to find someone with their old junk, they price it so high that you wouldn't buy it.

This year my parents had called three times to ask if we were coming, so we decided to go today and stay home tomorrow instead of doing the family thing. The weird thing is that we got there, walked down one street and met a teenaged cousin and his not-girlfriend. In the teeming mass of humanity, it was nearly impossible to make a phone call because of network congestion, so we just ambled on without much hope of actually finding my parents like we had intended. We had just turned onto a new street and walked a minute when I stopped, having been certain that I heard my name yelled. FYI, if your name is Kisha--when you hear it, you know it's someone talking to you. I scanned the crowd and didn't see anyone. I started to go on, but something made me look around for the caller one more time. And, re-joining the streets from a brief rest in front of a building.. my parents. And you know what's funny? They hadn't seen us until I started waving, so there really was no one saying my name. And then it got kind of creepy because we ran into my aunt and uncle, my cousin and her boyfriend, my great-aunt's sister-in-law, my aunt's ex-husband and his wife, another cousin, a friend of my parents and my uncle. Like I said. One hundred thousand people, and we ran into almost every member of my family. We didn't even come close to seeing everything, and just ambled aimlessly around the streets, no pattern whatsoever, and we still saw all those people. It was funny.

I also have an illustration of what the main thing selling happened to be, but it's in the camera downstairs so I will save that story. *pause* Oh, wait. I'll just linky-linky--Ebay should pay for its sin in ruining the flea markets in some manner, so here's a start. See the monstrosity. These hideous sequined purses were everywhere. The first time I saw one for sale I didn't pay much attention, but then I started noticing that lots of people are actually carrying the things. It is the most bizarre trend ever. I have a bit of a thing for purses--I rarely buy them, and I will carry one until it's falling apart before switching to a new one, but I have, if I may say so, fabulous taste in purses. My purses are probably the most complimented-by-strangers items that I have. I suppose I am telling you this to emphasize the fact that at least I have SOME small fashion sense, contrary to what all the people say I have a discerning eye with the purses, but really. Must I? Can anyone look at this thing and think.. wow, I'd love to have one of those? Is there a malfunction somewhere between the eye and the part of your brain that processes visual input if you think these are attractive? What is wrong with these people?!

Anyway, it was kind of funny because at some point after a whispered request to M, he darts off into the crowd across the street, camera at the ready. My mom looks at me askance and asks me where M had gone off to. "Oh," I said, "he's off to take a picture of those nasty purses so I can ridicule them on the internets." *pause* "Because, I guess, we are nerds." She just laughed at me then and said that they were quite popular and lots of people had them, but a little while later she kind of sighs and says, "well, I guess I'll have to take one of those Christmas presents I got you back to the store."

Oops.

And she was so serious about it! I felt really bad for being so strongly vehement about how horrid they were, since apparently she had picked up one of these purses at some occasion and thought, "this! this is a lovely item that I think my only daughter would appreciate show-casing on her person on a daily basis! it shall be so!" So I was sitting there, wallowing in guilt for long minutes while my mother looked put-upon... until, that is, she couldn't stand it anymore and started laughing. And I don't know whether I was more relieved to dispel the guilt of ruining her Christmas present for me, or that my mother had not, at any point, decided that one of those tacky items masquerading as purses would be a suitable present for her own flesh and blood.

Now moving on to something else. (This is semi-related but not until the end.) Back in the spring, my niece got pink eye. I may have blogged about this before, actually. Anyway, she got to miss a bunch of school, and when her cousin (exactly her age) found out about it, he took the markers that she had been using and rubbed them all over his face so HE could stay home with pink eye, too! The only trouble was that it took a few days for it to kick in, by which time spring break had begun. So.. he spent his spring break with pink eye instead of missing school with it. M, when told about this, laughed and used a Swedish expression that I think is quite brilliant. He translated it as "Some people God punishes immediately" (Vissa straffar Gud genast). And (here's where it's related) that expression has been running through my head over and over because--and you will probably only get this if you happen to have experience with metformin or drugs with similar side-effects--I gave in to temptation and had some funnel cake. And that's all I'm going to say about that, for some illnesses should not be discussed in this journal. It was good, though.

Also, I got sunburned. And I was wearing a necklace. I look like an idiot.