I write often about our friends Ana Paula & Marcio, and their two sons, Noah and Oliver (exact same ages as Sara and Kelly).  We’ve shared some times, that’s for sure.  I’ve also mentioned that they are Brazilian.  And maybe a “few” words about how cool I think it is to have Brazilian friends with all their Brazilian ways.  Seriously, have you heard anything prettier than a Portuguese accent?  I want to paint it as an impressionistic landscape and hang it on my wall.

But what I didn’t know was that Marcio was a good ‘ole country boy back in Brazil.  THIS was news to me after all these years.  We all went to the County Fair together last Saturday and had an absolute blast.  IF your definition of blast is watching your kids chase baby pigs around a little pen while stopping every few seconds to pet a rooster and a baby goat.  Yep, it doesn’t get much cuter than that ’round these parts.  Just when Marcio and I thought we couldn’t have a more John Mellencamp of a good time, we watched a man get shot out of a cannon.  Seriously, you ain’t been to an Indiana County Fair until you’ve had something fried, something sweet, a lemonade shake-up, pet a pig, hugged a horse, and watched a man get shot out of a cannon right there on the Midway.  Rock on Indiana Summer.  Rock on.

Apparently, Marcio was wearing Wranglers with a fancy belt buckle when he and Ana Paula met.  This detail seemed funny to me because I always imagine EVERYONE in Brazil lives on the beach, eats delicious food, talks about terribly interesting things while wearing great shoes and they are waxed and tan and fabulous.  You know, just like Hoosiers.  Wranglers?  Boy, you ate at my lunch table in high school.

But the reason I post is regarding something Ana Paula told me next.  Marcio took her to a County Fair in Brazil when they met, and she described the women there.  She told me they had rhinestones all over their shirts with fringe.  Incredulously, as I we walked into the 4H barn, I screeched, “THEY WERE BEDAZZLED?!  They have Bedazzlers IN BRAZIL?  THAT THING CROSSES CULTURES?!”  The answer is YES.  Redneck women in Brazil have the Bedazzler and use it copiously.  Shake my idea of good and evil why don’t ya’?

So more exciting than me now calling Marcio my Brazilian Hoosier, is that I think we should lobby the State Department to airdrop Bedazzlers all over the Middle East.  It brings us all together and makes us one.  If they don’t want our Wal-Marts, I bet they’ll eat up the chance to make rhinestone designs all over their burkhas.  It makes us want to eat pie and sit around in barns that smell bad, whooping and hollering for animals that will soon be sent to slaughter.  I think if they all got busy Bedazzling, maybe those religious zealots would have less time for hatred.  And more time for glitter.