Send in the Clowns

The circus came to town this week. We're following a tradition my mother started with my sisters and I and kept as long as we could afford it. I have no idea what tickets cost when I was a child, but an evening at the circus for just the three of us ran well over $130 for tickets, soda, cotton candy and a souvenir.
We take Evie every year when Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey come to town the first week of March. This year was actually better than its been for the last several years. Ringling's Bello-bration The theme this year centered around one very funny, tall haired clown and his antics around the circus. They did a similar show with Bello two years ago, but they've finally perfected what works. The best part for Evie, of all things, was the dogs. They really were hilarious and Evie instantly dubbed them, "the coolest dogs in the WORLD". Frankly, I'm not sure she's wrong. These dogs could do everything but make my morning coffee. At least, that wasn't part of the act, so who can be sure. They even had trained zebras. Well, they had zebras that were trained to run around in the ring and then switch directions. But I cut them some slack, they're freakin' zebras. Zebras are like those kids in school that are cool just because they're cool. Not because they actually do anything. You know all the horses want to be zebras. They probalby pretend to be zebras when they're on vacation. They're stylish, always dressed for day or night and can use any color to accessorize. Does that make zebra the new black?

I think the strangest part was the big cats. I could swear a few of them were ligers. Have you ever seen Napoleon Dynamite? He's out to prove he's got nothing to prove. Napoleon Sound Board I had to look up a picture on the Internet to be sure but they're actually real creatures. They looked like big tigers with dark blond stripes instead of black. A Real Liger They were truly beautiful but strange to look at. Much like with the movie Napoleon Dynamite, I was transfixed. They were the train wreck I couldn't tear my eyes from. Then just as he does every year, Kevin begged for a tiger. Evie calmly explained that they can be dangerous and might eat his head. She pointed out that we have our house cat, Mariah and tigers are just big cats, you know. We always have to act like we didn't know... really, big cats you say?