Circus Circus!

Blue cotton candy dissolves in my mouth as my friend, sitting next to me, giggles and pats my cheek, leaving powered sugar from her fried dough. In the ring, two jugglers, twins by their look, do cartwheels while keeping six juggling pins airborne. I’m at the circus and I’m loving it.

The Big Apple Circus was in town from April through Mother’s Day. I went twice, the second time with my sister and two friends. It was a single tent set up on City Hall Plaza, but it had all the fixings you would want from a circus. The circus brought clowns to amuse, a tightrope walker, twin jugglers, performing dogs and even a trapeze family, the “Flying Corteses.” The food selection was just as robust. Popcorn, blue and pink cotton candy, hotdogs, soft drinks in souvenir cups, churros, and fried dough. All over-priced as expected.

The highlight of the evening was watching Adam, a friend of my sister, get picked to take part in a dance contest against a clown. When we first sat down, in our ringside seats, my sister turned to Adam and told him that if there was an opportunity for an audience member to be a part of the act he would be our choice. Adam said he would make my sister do it, but, in the second half of the show, when the ringmistress began looking for someone in the audience, Adam was chosen.

He represented us well, performing admirably.

At the end of the show, the audience was informed of the major accident that happened on the green line between Park Street and Government Center. As we were ushered out the side entrance, the journalist in me sparked to life. I had my camera and my friend had pens and paper. There was no reason for us not to cover the story that was breaking around us. However, BU doesn’t give its journalism students press passes, though, that would be a great idea. We were relegated to flitting about around the edges of the police blockade.

The rest of the night was spent matching drinks with my friends at different watering holes around Boston. We stopped by one of my favorite places in downtown but they wouldn’t let Adam in with an out of state ID. We ended up at a spot near BU’s campus, An Tua Nua. It’s a good place; they even offered me a job. I’ll keep you posted.