Life With Frenchie

Oh wow! I can’t believe I forgot about this!! Last weekend, the office had a suite to the Ringling Bros. Circus so a very whiny enthusiastic EP and I packed MM and some friends into the car and headed off to the big city! I guess once you’re an adult, the circus loses most of its appeal and mystery. It has been a few years since I first took MM to the circus so the theme has changed. This year it was a theme that really hit home - something about being all about me! Anyways, the show was mildly amusing as the main clown was always causing the ringmaster grief. There was the usual parade of performers doing crazy things like hanging from extra-long scarves and twirling all about, the bottom of the circus totem pole circus performers — the dog trainers (what are they doing in a circus anyways??? they should be on Animal Planet), and the lady with the horses (really, does it take talent to get the horses to follow one another around an enclosed circle?).

There were still a few things that entertained me. For instance, the guys on the motorcycles in the metal ball. WOW! That just really amazes me. At one point, there were 7 motorcycles in there. I was literally covering my eyes with my hands and watching from between my fingers. When the motorcycles were stopping, it was so precise that they had to pick up their bikes and inch as close as possible to the other stopped bikes in the sphere. How do you even practice stuff like this? I mean, isn’t practice usually where you make your mistakes and learn and adjust? So how do you make a mistake when you have 7 motorcycles zipping around a, relatively, tiny sphere?

There were also the trapeze artists. Has the net gotten higher? Or the trapeze lower? It just doesn’t seem as huge as it did when I was younger. Granted, I was smaller (not much, but enough) then so things seemed so much bigger back then. Still, I feel like the trapeze used to be so much higher back then. Also, they didn’t do the usual taking away of the net. What’s up with that? I guess they figured traumatizing thousands of young kids, and several adults, when the circus performer goes splat is not so exciting. Just a thought.

By this point,  I was suffering from a terminal case of boredom! But, of course, we had to wait for the elephants! It’s pretty amazing how these giants can seem so gentle and “cute” when doing their thing in the circus. They paraded around, laid on their sides, climbed over each other, sat on each other, and walked in circles (why is it that elephants walking in circles is more entertaining than horses doing the same??). Nevertheless, I was glad it signaled the end of the show. I also don’t remember the circus being so incredibly long. I guess when you’re young and overly excited about things, time flies by. But when you’re *gulp* old and bored, things tend to drag on forever!

I guess my childhood is really over. I think this was the last year that I will see the circus.