The Carnival review

I took the boys to Carnival yesterday. A rite of spring, or something like that.

First, the complaints – I had to park in Doherty which is a hike for a four-year-old, let alone a two-year-old. Heck, it’s a hike for a pregnant woman! But the guy wouldn’t let me into Morewood lot. Apparently he felt sufficiently guilty because Deb pulled in several minutes after me, asked, and he let her in. So at least somebody benefited from my inconvenience.

I was most disappointed with the Sig Phi booth, mostly for reasons that really aren’t fair: the first time we stopped by, they were closed, getting ready for judging; the second time, they were closed, being judged. But Simon REALLY wanted to go in, because the theme was Rock n’ Roll, and their booth had a giant guitar and drum set. We finally got in, it was hot and crowded, but the boys were hanging in there when this truly horrible band began to play on the stage just outside the booth. It was so awful that it reduced my musically-inclined child to tears, and he couldn’t work up the necessary fortitude to play the game, which involved an electric guitar. A saint of a woman who was a little sister or a girlfriend gave my boys prizes anyway, for which I will be eternally grateful, and we skedaddled. They would have enjoyed it more if we could have gone in when we first got there instead of having to wait around and wait around until they were judged. Again, I understand that’s what Carnival is really about, but I was still peeved. And don’t even get me started on the band – apparently it was the School of Music band, and if that’s the best they can do, they should go fill out applications at McDonald’s NOW and save their parents’ tuition money!

The Taiwanese Student Association (Yellow Submarine) and the Asian Students Association (North Pole) were wonderful. My boys thoroughly enjoyed both, we even went back to the Yellow Submarine so the boys could play with the periscope again. The people manning the booths were patient and kind and chatted with the boys, and let them play the games several times, even helping them along so they’d win and get the prize (a lollipop and a candy cane, respectively). I appreciated this mindset – the prizes were small enough that it wasn’t a big deal to give them out even if the little kids didn’t really win the game, and as the mother of any toddler can tell you, to not get that lollipop would have been tragic : ) I will bet neither won the booth competition, but they were sweet kids who I feel had the spirit of Carnival in focus.

We didn’t even go into Phi Kap’s booth. Their theme was House of Fear, and I wasn’t willing to risk it with two little ones. It didn’t look nearly as detailed as previous years (I went to CMU in Phi Kap’s booth heyday); in fact, it sort of looked like the Clue booth recycled, stripped down, and painted red. Sorry, guys, but best of luck!

DU definitely had the most detailed and nicely built booth. (It was even finished, which is pretty unusual for a DU booth, at least during *my* years at CMU.) But we didn’t go in because the line was too long.


Entertainment Engineering, with the Immune System as their theme, was frankly terrible. There was no way anyone under the age of twelve could have possibly succeeded at their game, and in fact, would have had a tough time just moving thru their foam-blocks pit. Boo hiss. Again, I know it’s a college student affair, but lots of parents/alum bring their kids. Try to at least make it amenable to little ones. For example, the Taiwanese student Association had two games, one for very little kids and one for other people. Excellent idea.

The Zeta Psi Sigma booth, Candy Store, was cute, but you cannot have little kids in the candy store and give out stickers as the prize. Even I was disappointed – I was hoping for a pixie stick! And the pizza parlor was cute, but no one was around and their game was not obvious. I had to stop Si and Jude from chopping up the play tomatoes and onions.

We ate the obligatory funnel cake (ah, remember the days when a funnel cake was breakfast – at noon – and cotton candy and a hot dog was dinner…), and the boys rode the little cars, twice. We checked out the drama department’s roller coaster gate. Cute. See David’s blog for pics. We had a good time -- but we stayed about half an hour too long; stupid on my part, I know, but Si *really* wanted to go in the guitar booth. All I know is by the time we got home, the boys were rejuvenated (helped along by a little snack and some milk) but I still was ready for a nap!