Jacoblog: Carnival, how we love thee!

Carnival used to be the most annoying event at CMU. The parking lot that I used every year would be taken over by "carnies"---as well as booths built by the school's fraternities and sororities. Something called "Buggy," races that took place behind my office, kept me from parking outside my office on weekend mornings for months before the big race.

And then I had kids. Jacob would talk about Carnival for days, watching every day outside the windows at Cyert as a magical fairy land was constructed before his very eyes. He would talk about Carnival for weeks after, asking, begging us to bring it back. It was still annoying in all the old ways, but suddenly Carnival was something more than the sum of its parts, something that made my child happy.

This year was Casey's first Carnival. A few days before Carnival started Casey, Jacob and Josh and I walked through the parking lot where the Carnival workers were setting up the rides. Casey saw the "Granny Bugs," which were ladybug with granny glasses on them, and she declared that "was gonna ridem." She also said she was "gonna climbem." It occurred to us that Casey really had no idea what a Carnival ride was, but that each ride looked like a strange and wonderful play structure.

When Carnival day finally dawned and Casey got to "ride" the ladybugs, you can see that her expression turned from one of delight and anticipation, to fear and distress.