Blue Ribbon, yee-haw!!

Let me just say right up front that I positively live for any type of competition. If the opportunity exists to beat someone else out, rip their heart out of the their tiny chest and stomp on it, well, I am so there. Much of this intense desire to win comes from several foundational moments in my childhood and adolescence.
1. Coming in dead-last in every event at Field Day in elementary school, and feeling so ashamed about it that I brought home the 'participant' ribbon and telling my parents that "I won". Yes, how sad.
2. Never being the top seller of anything, EVER. Mainly because I hate selling things. But still.
3. Making it all the way to the finals of the Minnesota State High School French contest. Grand Prize: trip to France! Blanking out on stage in front of at least 500 people, forgetting lines of Jacques Prévert poem and suffering utter and complete humiliation. Added bonus: getting beat out by the &*!$*&^* drama people, you know, those over-achieving over-actors that feel they must participate in any possible performance, even if they don't even particularly LIKE French in order to showcase their thespian ways...bitter much?
4. My family inexplicably winning a year's worth of Clark Candy bars when I was about 11. This meant that for one year every day after school, my brother and I ate about 7 each of these things. I know this seems like winning, but trust me, this had negative outcomes on the waistline and kept me in husky jeans throughout junior high.





Yes, these events have turned me into one twisted sister. But all I can say is this: Today the losing stops, because I am a blue ribbon winner. My hat won first place at our local community farm show! Yes, I beat out crocheted toilet roll dolls and kleenex box covers and brought home the bacon. So exciting. My prizewinnings top an impressive $4.

This was my first forray into the world of the community farm show, and let me tell you, it's serious business. People get VERY wrapped up in it. There are people there that you didn't even know existed in your town until seeing them set up their displays of giant gourds and preserved beets. I am not making fun of this event, but it was not at all anything I have ever experienced. I happen to know of two personal relationships that have disintegrated as a result of unhappy outcomes in the judging. These people are not fooling around, and even though my category was nowhere near as competitive as the Angel Food contest, I am still holding on to that ribbon for a long time!