Today I actually enjoyed myself. Despite having to work at NBC30 this morning and then having to work what turned out to be a partial shift at CVS I got to go to the Big E with some friends I haven't seen in a while.
Before I get into the Big E I'll start at the top of the day with some fun times at NBC30. After two hours dealing with quite possibly the funnest (is that a word???) morning crew possible- Mindi, Andy Pergam, Garret, and Karen flooring, the tape op threw in the pooch tape (our version of a blooper reel). For a mid market station we sure have a lot of mistakes... a lot of double entendres... and a lot of fun on the air. Real good times there.
After a brief nap before my shift at CVS, my mom offered to work half my shift for me so that I wouldn't have to drive up to the Big E to meet Matt, Megan, and her new husband Erik there. Lucky me... the hour and a half at CVS flew by without incident and I was out the door before I had barely even started working. Thank God I've only got a week left there.
So I get home and wait around for a bit to be picked up. After a nice ride through Suffield to avoid the traffic we get to the Big E where we get hit with the first big bill of the night: $10 to park the car. After driving around and finding a spot we got out and got to the gates... to find that admission is $15, even after 5p.m. on weekends. Here's where we start counting the cash: at the start of the night I had $50. Before even setting foot inside the venue I'm already down to $35.
After poking through the venues for a bit it was time for dinner, which meant my first smoked turkey leg in eight years... since the last time I was at Disney World. Man that was good... even at the $6 price tag. Throw in a soda and later a beer and I'm now down to $21.50. A $3 cream puff later, then $4.50 cheese curds, a $4 Mike's Hard Lime, and a $4.50 fried dough later, and you can see where the night went. Cha ching! The one bright spot of the night was the $1 steak-umms sub in the Connecticut building. For that price almost anything tastes good.
Overall it was a really fun night. It was great to see a couple old friends again and enjoy a fair I haven't been to in almost a half decade. The one lesson I've learned is that nothing's cheap anymore. Yeah I ate quite a bit of food but it still shouldn't empty my wallet to do it. I can only imagine what people with kids go through when they go to the Big E. It's kind of ridiculous. Okay, that's it for me tonight. I can barely keep my eyes open, which means it's time for me to nap before work.
