The. Circus.

There are a few factors that go into making a decision like the one I made the other day, to take Thad to the circus.

One, I have been to several Cirque du Soleil shows and have loved them more than words can explain. They have me leaving in awe of my entire life in general, wishing that I had worked on my splits a little more when I was 5, instead of playing softball.

Two, I love watching crazy animal tricks.

Three, I secretly think it would be fascinating to watch a rogue tiger take a chunk out of his trainer's thigh. Sick, I know.

And four, I have a kid. Who doesn't want to take their kid to the circus!?

So we went.

And it was one word: LAME.

And when I say that it was "lame," I mean it in the "my 3-year-old son was totally bored" kind of way. At one point, he had his back turned to the arena, and was sitting on the floor playing with the motorcycle toy we had bought for him.

Like, there are people jumping through fire hoops, and he was more interested in watching his plastic motorcycle go back and forth on a chair covered in nacho cheese, presumably from the previous nights' circus attendees.

The only cool thing was the elephants. There were several of them, and I loved just watching them. Beautiful animals, those elephants.

But even the tigers were lame. They kept them in their cages, and had them raise their paws on command. Big deal. My cat does the same thing when I put a spoonful of ice cream in her face.

And the clowns?

Oh dear God, the clowns.

 First of all, they weren't clowns in the traditional sense of the word. They were more like mid-20-somethings in baggy pants and sideways visors who knew how to jump on trampolines and run around. They didn't even have face paint on.

Their magic tricks were actually obvious, and when they did something they deemed to be 'impressive,' I swear they did it for 20 minutes at a time. I mean, am I getting old? Or does that sound lame? I figure if you can't even keep Thad entertained (the kid likes to pop bubble wrap), then you have a total and complete epic fail on your hands.

I was able to get some photos, although not the best quality. It was the one time I wished I had brought my zoom lens with me. Oh well.