The State Fair

I had tried to prepare myself for two weeks that I was not going to be able to spend Ariel's 20th birthday with her. This was not an easy thing for me, but I figured this was the first of many more birthdays I would miss as she got older. She has been struggling with some nightmare roommates and the week before her birthday, I decided that I needed to drive up to see her. Megan was going to ride up with some friends on Thursday and they were all going to a concert on Friday. Ariel had been asking if I could come up with them, I made up a story and told her that I would be showing houses that weekend and wouldn't be able to. I really wanted to surprise her.  My brother Jon and his family were going to the fair the night we arrived, so Megan and I decided to join them. After my mom got home from work, we headed to Salt Lake and Lisa and her two boys met us there. All of them were really surprised to see us, only my mom knew we were coming. We enjoyed a delicious piece of roasted corn smothered in lemon pepper butter before we went in to watch the rodeo. 

The rodeo was pretty fun, I hadn't seen one for many, many years. I don't quite understand why people choose to go into the rodeo business, but it seems to be an interesting career choice. After the bull riding, we went down the GIANT slide, you know the one where you ride down on a potato sack. Megan wanted me to go down it with her. I am terrified of heights, I was scared out of my mind just climbing the steps to get to the top (I know I am a baby.) Megan told me I had to go down because I would look like a loser walking back down the stairs as people were coming up. I created a brief mental picture of that scene and that gave me the courage to get on the sack. It was quite fun but very fast and I think I was slightly airborne at one point. When I got to the bottom, I was shaking all over but was glad for the ride. 

We said our good-bye's to the others and headed for our car. Before we made it to the freeway, my mom got a call from Lisa. I could hear she was very upset, she said that her car had been stolen. We turned around and drove back to where she said she had parked, the car was gone. She called the police, they met us across the street at the 7-11. By this time it is after 10:30 p.m. and we are at a convenient store in a very sketchy neighborhood in Rose Park. It was not a comfortable feeling. I felt so bad for Lisa and her boys seeing how upset they were, knowing she wouldn't have the means to replace the car and wondering how they would survive without it. After the officer was done taking the report, I drove Lisa and the kids to her house. I told her if the police called in the night to call my cell and not mom's. It was almost midnight before we got back to Bountiful and into bed and my mom had to work the next day. 

At 3:56 Friday morning, I got a call from Lisa, the police had found her car and she needed a ride to get it. Megan and I quietly left the house and drove out to Lisa's. I pushed Lisa's name on my phone, but it dialed my mom instead. I hurried and hung up, but she called me right back. I said I was sorry my phone dialed her by mistake but that I was at Lisa's and the police had found her car. My mom said she had heard a noise and had been sitting there with her pepper spray for about a half of an hour. I felt really bad about that, she must have heard the door close when we left. The car was on the street in front of a park a few blocks away from the fairgrounds. The police officer said it looked like it was fine but he wanted her to open the trunk so he could make sure there wasn't a dead body inside. She unlocked the trunk and was afraid to look at first because she had all her camping equipment in the trunk and she thought it would be gone. She was so happy to see that it was still there that she screamed and threw her arms around the officer. He didn't look to excited about getting a hug, but we were so relieved it was all still there and that her car wasn't damaged. She drove home a very happy girl. We were tired the next day, especially my mom, she had only slept for one hour.