Jose Cole, You Are a Friend of Mine...

Not really, but it seemed like a good title. I've been obnoxiously busy lately, not only taking days off to turn over half of a rental duplex, but dragging my friends and family along for the fun for going on four weeks now. I swear the thing is retrograding between visits. It doesn't help that Pooteewheet painted everything almost black before we left (it's the side we used to inhabit) and it now needs three coats of paint and some touch up on top, but the real problem is that absolutely everything needs some sort of attention.

But, tonight I escaped my landlord duties and went with my family to the Jose Cole Circus at the Eagan Civic Arena. The fact that it was in the Eagan Civic Arena should give you some idea of exactly what sort of circus we were attending, as it's primarily used for ice time. Sure, when I was at RPI, they'd host Aerosmith concerts in the ice arena, but that was college sized, and they were good (the RPI hockey team), so they had plenty of space. The Eagan Civic Arena, on the other hand, has the floor space of a good-sized state fair building.

Regardless, there were three rings, and Eryn loved it. From the cotton candy, to trapping her parents into their first forced purchase by raising her good arm high when they asked who wanted to buy a $2 circus coloring book (which gave me flashbacks - my parents were big circus goers when I was a kid. I don't honestly remember why, but I suspect it was my mother - I remember her being very happy at the circus - maybe they gave her tent revival flashbacks. They used to buy me circus coloring books, and I remember some of them coming from the source. I think we attended both small circuses and large circuses - because I remember some fairly impressive displays involving tigers, and I don't think it was just t.v.), to the various acts. She was particularly entranced by the fire eater and a few of the animal acts - but bored by the magician.

As far as being the parents of a child at the circus. You sort of get a different take on the experience. The Amazing Jim (how amazing can you be named Jim?) was a balancing act on what seemed to be chairs made out of PVC tubing. I was truly frightened for him because it just doesn't seem that PVC tubing should be stacked twenty feet high for any reason, let alone if you're going to do a handstand on it. Princess Jessica the cortortionist - talented, all that twisty stuff looked extremely difficult. The creepy clown with the rose bestowing it on her, even though she looked to be about 13, ewwwww.... The trapeze guy who only got about 12 feet off the floor and whose act consisted primarily of stunts that most 8 year olds do on the monkey bars...less amazing than The Amazing Jim. The ring master making a balloon mouse and telling the audience it was Topojijo...honestly, I might have been the only person in the whole arena who understood what the hell he was talking about, and even I'm too young - I only know it on hearsay. And, did you know there are several different ways to instrumentally, and loudly, play Mambo #5 by Lou Bega - none of them make it any better.