Coupons Anyone?

I took my kiddos to the fair on Friday night. I love the fair . . it takes me back to my childhood when the Lincoln County Fair would come to town. My brother and I would anxiously await the week and then when it arrived it always seemed as if Friday night would NEVER get there. We always went on Friday night. Before we were allowed to ride any of the rides, we had to go with our mom and dad and visit the animals – see what pig one first place and check out the chickens. But the rides . . oh those possible contraptions of death . . .how we looked forward to these. Our favorite, by far, were the swings. Now, back when we were kids, you were allowed reach out and grab the person in front or back of you and pull together. Then, if you were in the back, your main goal was put your hands on the top of swing, put both feet firmly on the back of the seat and launch the person in front of you with all you could muster. If my children even attempted this today, I would die. I honestly cannot believe our parents allowed us on this ride . . . but it was fun.


Now, the State Fair of Texas has lots of great food, the largest pig I have ever seen and Big Tex. As we were standing in line, we were discussing what rides the kids wanted to ride and what food we would buy. I had printed out some half price tickets from the internet and since my brother and the group of people we were meeting had arrived much earlier than we had, I had about 5 extra half price coupons. The lines to get in were rather long on Friday night and as I glanced around trying to figure out who had half price coupons and who did not, I noticed the people directly behind staring at me. Now, I admit, I have people look at me from time to time, typically due to my hair – since it is curly and has a mind of its own and can actually take on its own personality. Then, the lady that was staring at me, leaned over to her female companion and whispered something . . . and they she stared looking and whispering. So I turned around quickly and asked my daughter if I had “bat in my cave” or if my hair was just completely out of control. She said no on the hair, did a quick boogie check and told me I had nothing. So, now I am completely insecure . . . why are these women looking at me? Is my make up too heavy? Do I have a huge zit? Is it time to wax again? As I stand there contemplating all the things that could be wrong, Andrew tells me that I need to hurry up and get rid of our extra coupons because we are next in line. So, I turn around and ask the women who had been talking about me if they needed the tickets . . . They were so happy to have them and thanked me and as I turned to walk away the first lady said … “I just want you to know that you have the prettiest eyes we have ever seen” Then the other lady said “Yes you do, we were just talking about them a little bit ago”. Hmmm . . . I smiled and said thank you and the kids and I went on into the fair.

Now, I am not really sure if that is what they were talking about or if they made that up because I was nice and probably saved them a ton of money on rides that night . . . but I don’t care. It made me smile and feel good about myslef.  Now, I am not one to just talk to random, strange people . . . well yes I am, but it made me think – If something so small as telling someone you think they have pretty eyes can make you feel so great … why don’t we do it more often? I know that I more apt to point out some hideous shirt rather than pointing out a cute hair or nice pair of shoes. So, my goal is to say something nice to someone each and every day . . . wish me luck!