Cheesy, I know. I’ll miss Don LaFontaine’s movie trailers, but I know I am not the only one feeling the same sense of anticipation he always built. Nor am I the only one doing a countdown! Depending on when each of us leave, we’re somewhere between the 15 and 18 mark, that is, the number of days until the ARBA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the week we rabbit people can’t wait for, and for some of us, our annual vacation.
Explaining this to the so-called normal people in my everyday life isn’t always easy. They know I have a vacation coming up and ask me where I’m going and what I’m going to see. This year, it’s Kentucky, so they wonder about the Louisville Slugger factory or Churchill Downs. I smile and think, “here we go again.”
The answer to this is that I’m not going to “see” anything, except 22,394 rabbits and a bunch of people just like me. It’s more than a vacation and more than a show, it’s entering an alternate reality. We will descend upon the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center and turn it into Rabbit Land. Here, being obsessed with rabbits is the definition of normalcy and if you aren’t, something is obviously wrong with you. For an entire week, I will not be asked why I have scratches on my hands. When I talk about going away to a show no one will gasp and ask, “By yourself?” Not once will I have to decide whether mentioning the rabbits will result in a barrage of questions (“How do you show them? Do they do tricks? What do you do with them all?”). I won’t have to look around before giving advice to friends who call midday about does who won’t breed. The fur on my clothes won’t be embarrassing, it will be accessorizing! These are my people, they understand me and can speak my language.
Part of the appeal of this is the disconnect from the real world and a haven from it. With this being an election year I am particularly looking forward to no TV for a week. In Louisville, no one will give a scut (look it up) about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama. Of course, there are rabbit politics but in the grand scheme, it’s all very inconsequential. No matter who I voted for, these presidents, vice-presidents and directors don’t have the power to declare war or make decisions that will affect my health care coverage.
For a week, our problems will consist of things like wondering if we entered the right rabbit, if our favorite will get lost in the class, or if we’ll find the perfect one to add to our herd. And for some, dealing with non-rabbit people at home. They just can’t understand why we can’t find time to call when all we seem to do is stand around and talk all day. We’ll tell them that we see these people once a year, we lost track of time, etc. which is partly true. What is even more true is that if it doesn’t have to do with rabbits or rabbit people, we’re simply not interested.
This will continue until Thursday morning, when we’re forced to remove, in 4 or 5 hours, all the rabbits and equipment we brought in over a 3 day period. It is nothing short of organized chaos and feels like the spell has been broken. We’ll go home to our families and jobs feeling a little more relaxed and like we’ve had our “fix.” Whether this is a binge or rehab, I’ll never know.
