Also, everyone at the circus seems related. The strong men? Dad and his three boys. The clowns? The older funny one to the straight guy was the father of the young assistant clown. The daredevil couple? Married. The circus is a world unto its own.

(I loved the sea lions, they're funny!)

I liked all the tiny people getting out of one car.

But I HATED the sideshow. It was really scary. Then my mother, a biology teacher, explained all the hormonal and genetic abnormalities the sideshow people had. Like the Cretin. And the Pituitary Giant.

And that made me feel worse.

But we bought a live chameleon in the "gift area" and I liked that. Until it turned out that it had to be fed mealworms.

Oh, and then I read about all the members of the Highwire Act who had fallen and died or broken their spines.

Let's face it, the circus is traumatic.

I loved the flying trapeze acts.

The married couple doing their high-flying thing in this show climbed out of a space-ship that went round-and-round (I got dizzy looking at it) at the top of the tent. The husband jammed hit feet into the spaceship so that he hung upside down from it, and then let his missus climb down on him. Suddenly she's hanging seemingly from her teeth onto a small rope that he's holding and twirling (!), all the while that spaceship is still going around in circles - and I caught myself covering my face with my hands like a little kid.

Oh hang on, I filmed that too with my phone so the quality sucks but you see what I mean by "dizzy", right? (and yes, that's Perle singing along which she did the entire show)

That's awesome! The soft focus makes it look like a cartoon. :)

Oh, man.

When I was growing up, my mom was a nurse in a doctor's office. One of her patients was the general manager of the Charlotte Coliseum, and he always got us primo tickets to events that we would have never been able to afford. I didn't know that, though, and thought that every kid got box seats when the circus came to town. I also thought that everyone got to tour the tents. This was Ringling Bros., the big time, and I got to pet the camels and step in poo and see the little people smoking. It was awesome.

Fast forward to 11 years ago. My daughter is 4, and I'm taking her to the circus for the first time, Ringling Bros., at the DC Armory. As we're driving there, we come up Capitol Hill. I point to the Capitol, saying it's a very important building. I swear to God, she asks "Is that where the clowns are?" I swear to God.

Fast forward to four years ago. My job is in DC, right on Capitol Hill, and I find out that Ringling Bros. parades their livestock through my very neighborhood, pausing for photo ops in front of the Capitol. I'm hanging out on a street corner, and I see a tourist looking at a map. I helpfully offer help, and give him directions to where he's going. Then I add that there will be a circus parade coming by in a few minutes, with elephants and clowns and such. I see, I physically see, his confidence in my directions fading. But then I notice a few minutes later, as the elephants are walking up residential side streets, that he's watching.

I've seen a few more circus parades since then, and I always end up having the same conversation with tourists:

Me: Look, elephants!
Tourist: Huh?
Me: Elephants!
Tourist: Elephants?
Me: Look!
Tourist: Elephants!

a circus parade! Man, I wish I could see one of them! Awesome!