Back track to Wednesday, July 13
The Employment Center called and offered me an interview with Chicago Dogs, a pretty self-explanatory vender that sells Chicago style hotdogs. Aptly named.
On Wednesday, July 13th, I again made the drive from Duluth to the Fair Grounds for the interview. I left early because I wanted to leave with plenty of time for potential traffic and navigational error situations. When I arrived, I still had a solid hour to kill. After picking up an interview assignment sheet from the State Fair Employment office, I got back in my car and drove through Dan Patch Avenue entrance. I followed the map to Chicago Dogs. Driving a car down those streets felt downright eerie. My foot was perpetually on the breaks as though I were about to get pulled over, or drive over hordes of people that I imagined might magically appear as they do at the end of August. It was disconcerting.
The cool thing was, without all the people, I started to see details I had never noticed during fair time. For example, did you know that the fair grounds’ roads actually have names and street signs? Personally, I’ve always navigated the fair in relation to the food booths.
“Oh yes, the giant slide…that’s close to the corn isn’t it?”
Or
“The Education Building? Just after the Kiwanis Milk Shakes.”
Also, did you know that the fair grounds are full of greenery? The streets are lined with shady ash and maple trees like suburban neighborhoods. Lawns in front of buildings are carpeted with grass and interspersed with lush gardens of flowers and other landscaping plants.
I parked my car close to the Grand Stand and walked around the blocks. Sultry anticipation hung in the air, mixing with a stale heaviness of ghost town fried cheese curds. I spotted one or two groups of summer employees, landscaping or driving maintenance vehicles. A few other people, mostly young kids in their teens, seemed to be doing the same thing I was, clutching green interview assignment slips and checking maps.
This is when I noticed one other thing about fair grounds in the off season: things are a LOT closer together than I had realized. I think it is because the huge multitudes one has to cross to get anywhere during the fair makes the distances between any two destinations seem much larger than it actually is.
There is probably an algorithm for this that goes something like:
x number of people in a crowd X actual distance RAISED TO THE POWER OF x level of mini-donut cravings = perceived distance OVER time
Similarly, the grounds actually have a LOT of bathrooms! Without a tedious line sneaking out and around it, a women’s bathroom is incredibly easy to spot on most blocks. I used one. You better believe I reveled in the glory of that lineless break.
With a few minutes left before my interview time, I sat down at a picnic table outside of Chicago Dogs to take a few notes. I actually tried to summon up some nervousness for the interview but I couldn't do it.
This is what was running through my head: If my liberal arts degree and ability as a friendly Minnesota Nice native cannot get me this job, I might as well give up now, and take up vagabonding full time. It would be far more fun, and less stressful.
So I wasn’t nervous. Instead, I was actually having trouble taking the whole ordeal seriously, getting giggly even, like I tend to do before I go out for the evening or when I am hanging out with people I’ve only recently met.
I kept asking myself, Am I doing this for real?
Then I seriously thought about the answer. I had just spent thirty dollars on gas to get to an interview for a twelve day job that only pays SEVEN-FIFTY an hour. During the fair, I planned to stay at my dad’s house in Brooklyn Park, but I’d still have to pay something to get to St. Paul every day.
That could add up.
And while we’re at it, it isn’t free to get into the fair. That’s got to be included in my employment agreement. Right?
I started to wonder.
Oh my, was my final thought as I walked into the interview, I might just LOSE money on this venture!
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