the thrill of the circus

The government paid for us to go to the Ringling Bros. Circus. It was the first time I'd been to the circus, so I was excited. Deondre was a little confused about what we were doing. He kept asking we were going, and once we got to the Verizon Center he wanted to know when it was going to start. I told him we would know when it would start because an announcer would tell us when it was starting and what was going. As I had told him, the announcer came out and the lights went out and the show started. It was really exciting: there were tigers and tightrope walkers and flying trapeze artists. In the middle of all of this, Deondre turned to me and asked when it was going to start. I told him that it had already started. He said, "but where's the movie screen?" I told him that we weren't at the movies, we were at the circus. He said, "but there's not even a round twirly thing!" "A ferris wheel?" "Yeah. There's not even a ferris wheel." "Deondre, we're not at the carnival. We're at the circus. Look at the tigers and the trapeze artists!" He apparently wasn't impressed - or even interested. He slept through the whole thing. But, you know, it was nice of all the taxpayers to give Deondre the experience of going to the circus.